Good Jobs First, an organization focused on tracking corporate subsidies, published a report analyzing the effects of tax abatements for economic development on school funding. The results should be a wakeup call to Texas legislators considering whether to renew these controversial corporate property tax breaks. Abating Our Future – How Students Pay for Corporate Tax...
In 1962, President John F. Kennedy signed Proclamation 3537 to give us the Peace Officers Memorial Day and the corresponding Police Week (May 9-15 this year). In its text were an apt description of what most of us believe Police Week should be about “commemorating law enforcement officers, past and present, who by their faithful...
To say Texas is a big state is an understatement—there are over 800 miles between Beaumont and El Paso and another 760 between Amarillo and Harlingen. Because the state is so large it’s no surprise there is diversity in cultures, norms, political beliefs, and legislative priorities in the Lone Star State. In fact, there are...
As in Georgia, Florida, and other states, the Texas legislature is working to strengthen the state’s election law against the left’s largely successful 2020 effort to subvert it. Texas last passed an election code omnibus bill in 2017 (I testified in favor of the bill). That bill, as with 2021’s efforts, aimed to increase safeguards...
You’d think ERCOT would have learned its lesson. I warned last year that summer blackouts were coming to Texas; it is likely we would have had outages in August 2020 if not for lower electricity demand caused by the COVID-19 economic shutdowns. The winter outages that killed 111 Texans — and the close call on...
There is an astounding amount of disinformation surrounding Texas Legislature’s election integrity bills. Among the many mischaracterizations, two stand out: claims of racism buttressed by fabricated history, and the objections to letting poll watchers do their jobs. Let’s start with that fabricated history. Texas House Bill 6 wisely quoted the Texas Constitution for the Legislature’s...
By Vance Ginn, Ph.D. and Quinn Townsend Families in Alaska, whether in good or bad economic times, practice responsible, priority-based budgeting. They must make decisions, often difficult ones, on how best to spend their hard-earned dollars. The same is true for small business owners who must prioritize their spending to keep their doors open, meet...
The substantially weaker than expected U.S. jobs report was unfortunate for struggling Americans, but it should have been expected given the disastrous policy out of D.C. Fortunately, states can fix it. Milton Friedman said that if the federal government oversaw the Sahara Desert, within five years there would be a shortage of sand. So inefficient...
Oklahoma’s felony statutes have changed significantly in recent years, but many people are still dealing with the negative effects of those laws. Last month, we read about Caron McBride, of Texas, who discovered during a routine trip to adjust the name on her driver’s license that there was an outstanding felony warrant for her from Cleveland County...
I spent many years in the classroom, with a roomful of students looking to me for knowledge, instruction and guidance. I can’t imagine looking back into their eyes and telling them that they’re irredeemably bad, that their nation is built on a lie, and that some of them are worth more than others—depending on the...
In 2019, the Texas Legislature made a huge change when it passed HB 347, a bill eliminating forced annexation in Texas. While this was a big win for Texans, there remains more work to do. We must now turn our attention to extraterritorial jurisdictions (ETJs). ETJs are the buffer zone surrounding a city’s corporate boundaries...
A recent Wall Street Journal article claimed “U.S. Debt Is at a Record High, but the Risk Calculus Is Changing.” But is that calculus really changing? According to some, the government can borrow and print all the money it wants without repercussions. Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) advances the puerile notion that we have somehow moved...