Many families across Texas keep a lean household budget that’s within their limited resources. Priorities matter for every dollar within their budget, whether it be for savings or food. This means families track expenditures and compare them over time to determine how to best spend their money. Your government should budget similarly. You should be...
On the first Tuesday of the month, bidders still gather promptly at 10 a.m. on the west-facing steps of the Travis County Courthouse for the tax sale — the auction of properties that have been seized by local taxing entities for unpaid taxes. Some of the sales are of homes once owned by my neighbors...
Chuck Devore, former California assemblyman, says the cost of high-speed rail tickets would cost twice as much as an airline ticket. California Gov. Gavin Newsom, under budgetary pressure to provide more government health care for illegal immigrants and more housing for the working poor, just threw the Green New Deal’s nationwide train network under the...
The new year has our families – and yours – thinking about our budget priorities for the coming year. Some families will be cutting back on things like fast food and increasing savings. But a budget is more than just a spending guideline; it’s also a statement of priorities. It reveals what’s important to us,...
In order to cut Texans’ property taxes and not just slow the growth, any property tax plan needs three parts. While these elements can be passed separately, doing so risks providing only part of the comprehensive relief Texans need now. For that reason, the Texas Public Policy Foundation plan calls for a single bill.
Conservative Texas Budget: $234.1 Billion Senate Recommended Budget: $240.2 Billion House Recommended Budget: $235.8 Billion The table provide an apples-to-apples comparison of amounts appropriated for the 2018-19 budget from the Legislative Budget Board’s (LBB) Fiscal Size-Up and each chamber’s 2020-21 recommended budget. We compare each chamber’s recommendations with the Conservative Texas Budget (CTB) limits for state funds and...
Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Ed Markey are championing legislation known as the Green New Deal (GND). Scratch the surface a little and this now-vague plan can be seen as a sweeping, exorbitant, infeasible and coercive scheme. The draft plan may be introduced as legislation this week, but the details remain uncertain. The original draft...
The Johnson family wanted to stay in Austin. But as the Austin American-Statesman reported in 2017, the tax burden just became too great. “The Johnsons this year would have paid nearly $9,100 in taxes, up $1,880 from five years ago,” the Statesman explained. “Instead, they uprooted their kids from their schools and moved in August...
The polar vortex that sent U.S. temperatures plunging last week has lifted. But what did we learn from the record-breaking cold snap that killed more than two dozen people and sent hundreds to the hospital with frostbite and other weather-related injuries? The only real defense against Winter Storm Jayden was fossil fuels. Even as U.S....
Unlike the federal government, Article I, Section 10 of the U.S. Constitution prohibits states from issuing their own money. State power to tax and borrow is thus limited only by economics and commonsense. Some states rely heavily on volatile revenue sources, such as personal income taxes with high marginal rates or excise taxes on oil...
As we begin another Black History Month in America, it is imperative that we have a real discussion about the state of Black America. If there is one issue that must be addressed it is the decimation of the traditional two parent Black family. In his op-ed piece for the Washington Post, former NFL tight...
In honor of Black History Month, we are offering a FREE digital copy of Booker T. Washington’s Up From Slavery with a special foreword from LTC Allen West. To receive instant access to your E-book, enter your information below.