Energy & Environment

Trump’s Right About California’s Fires: It Wasn’t Climate Change; Two New California Laws Prove It

California’s politicians, bureaucrats, electric utilities and even celebrities have taken to using “climate change” as a multipurpose excuse for having done nothing to prevent deadly wildfires. Doing nothing, at least nothing effective, has been a central public policy feature in the climate change debate, especially when it comes to wildfires. The facts are clear: California’s deadliest year...

November 27, 2018

Family

When playtime is illegal

Most kids, at least in my generation, played some variation of “Cops and Robbers.” Some hid, some chased. The goal was to bring evildoers to justice. The lawlessness of “Cops and Robbers” was make-believe, of course, but the freedom for kids to play with their friends is becoming illegal in more and more instances. The...

November 27, 2018

Energy & Environment

Chapters 312 and 313 are supposed to bring jobs—renewables don’t

It’s no mystery that Texas is open for business. In fact, it earned the prize of being the top spot for business this year. As the United States takes the top spot for oil production, Texas leads the way. When you discount U.S. Department of Energy employment figures to exclude initial construction—focusing on jobs that...

November 27, 2018

Local Government

How Much Do Local Governments Owe?

Answer: $354,563,202,276. According to newly released figures from the Texas Bond Review Board, local government debt grew to a staggering $354.6 billion in fiscal year 2018. On a per capita basis, that’s enough public debt to swamp every man, woman, and child in Texas with more than $12,500 in red ink. As in years past,...

November 26, 2018

Economy

Texas’ economic freedom ranking remains high but drops to 3rd nationwide

The midterm elections reinforced the point that institutions matter for our livelihood and prosperity. If our economic and political institutions support freedom, then our social institutions – families, charities and churches – can thrive. If they don’t, then our republic could crumble. The recent Economic Freedom of the World report notes that the U.S. has...

November 26, 2018

Other

Driven by Subsidies

Subsides are just not for renewable power; but also for electric vehicles. Congress is considering extending a tax credit for electric cars: “Initially, Congress sought to jump-start the electric vehicle industry with this incentive,” Matt Mackowiak explains in the Washington Times. “But the phase-out concept was also a recognition that once a manufacturer sold a...

November 21, 2018

K-12 Education

When your superintendent makes more than the governor: public education’s priority problem

The American education lobby is caught in a pickle. On one hand, advocates and influencers are trying to convince people that public education is chronically underfunded, even going so far as to claim that schools are “starving.” On the other hand, watchdogs have documented countless examples of waste and misuse of funds—everything from the McKinney...

November 21, 2018

Energy & Environment

Hasan Minhaj Studio Audience Laughs At Rural Americans’ Gripes About Wind Farms

The rural-urban divide is clear, if nuanced, and paying attention to it can have significant returns. This was never clearer than in 2016 when Donald Trump rode a populist wave, driven by rural America, into the nation’s highest office. Sadly, rural Americans aren’t just ignored, they’re laughed at. On Netflix’s “Patriot Act,” host Hasan Minhaj showed a video from...

November 20, 2018

Other

Things to be thankful for

Families in some part of the state are paying less than $2 per gallon of gas — just in time for holiday travel. It may seem a small matter, but those are real savings for Texas families. We ought to be thankful in the little things as well as the big things, in the unexpected...

November 20, 2018

Taxes & Spending

New York and Virginia won Amazon, but low-tax states keep winning more and more jobs

Gov. Andrew Cuomo, D-N.Y., offered Amazon $1.5 billion in corporate cronyism tax breaks, saying, “It’s not a level playing field to begin with. All things being equal, if we do nothing, they’re going to Texas.” State and local taxes matter. After the historic tax cut passed with President Trump’s signature last December, they matter even...

November 19, 2018

Taxes & Spending

Taxing Texans right out of their comfort food

Texas restaurant and bar Threadgill’s World Headquarters is as Austin as it gets. Threadgill’s owner Eddie Wilson once flashed his underwear to the audience as he introduced a sitting Texas governor at a music festival (Wilson was justifiably proud of his armadillo boxers, and Gov. Ann Richards reportedly took it in stride). On top of...

November 19, 2018

Energy & Environment

The Return of the $4 Billion Electricity Tax

Most people don’t like to compete. Athletes sometimes doctor their equipment to gain an edge in winning their games. Politicians gerrymander their districts rather than compete with their opponents for votes. In the case of businesses, many of them go to the government get more profits from taxpayers than they could by competing for consumers....

November 16, 2018