Taxes & Spending

New Study on Film Incentives Finds Little Effect on Location, Jobs

A recent study on state film incentives (SFIs) examined their effects on filming location for TV series and feature films, employment, establishments, wages, and related industries—hotels, caterers, costumes, buildings, and transportation rentals. The study’s results indicate that the taxpayer dollars handed out to TV and movie productions to generate economic development could have little to no...

November 19, 2019

Taxes & Spending

Texans embrace their Constitutional role

Texans received a stronger safeguard this month against any state tax being imposed on the income they earn through their hard work and initiative. That’s because Texans voted overwhelmingly Nov. 5 to amend the state constitution to make the future imposition of a state income tax even more difficult. To be clear, Texas does not...

November 18, 2019

Criminal Justice

Gun control proposals wouldn’t prevent violence. They’d only burden lawful gun owners

With high-profile gun violence incidents such as those in Odessa, El Paso, Santa Fe and Sutherland Springs fresh in the minds of Texans, the call for policymakers to “do something” has steadily grown louder. From the expansion of background checks to the regulation of magazines or outright confiscation, everyone seems to have an idea of...

November 15, 2019

Energy & Environment

America, Not Paris, is the Environment’s Best Champion

President Trump recently shed light on a little-acknowledged but critical fact: Free-market American ingenuity, not the Paris Agreement, is improving our environment. “The Paris Accord would’ve been a giant transfer of American wealth to foreign nations that are responsible for most of the world’s pollution,” President Trump said at the Shale Insight conference in Pittsburgh....

November 15, 2019

Health Care

Steering toward a government health care off-ramp

My friend David was a member of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers when the Affordable Care Act (ACA) passed in 2010. The next time the union contract was up, his health insurance premiums, deductibles and copays shot up so much that he and his wife elected to go with Medicare and a supplement, even...

November 14, 2019

Criminal Justice

Kentucky Cannot Afford Criminal Justice Reform Fatigue

Society cannot incarcerate its way out of the public health crisis that is drug addiction. But in making the possession of drugs a felony rather than a misdemeanor, Kentucky shows a stubborn willingness to continue to try. Meanwhile, the drug addicts incarcerated alongside drug traffickers and violent criminals continue to suffer a health crisis, along...

November 12, 2019

Higher Education

‘The Risk is Minimal’: Justice Scalia On The Need For A Convention of States To Restrain Federal Power

In my prior piece, “Resistance on the Right: Will Conservatives Ever Come Together on an Article V Convention of the States?” I explained that under Article V of the U.S. Constitution, if two-thirds of the states approve resolutions calling on Congress to hold an amendments convention, Congress has no choice but to obey. I then...

November 11, 2019

Health Care

Biden’s Plan for Health is Already a Failure

Most Democratic presidential candidates are supporting some version of Medicare for All, a radical proposal to put Washington in complete control of the health-care system. Joe Biden, however, promises to “protect and build on the Affordable Care Act,” the last Washington health-care experiment, which is better known as ObamaCare. Yet ObamaCare largely failed in its...

November 10, 2019

Taxes & Spending

President Trump calls it quits on New York taxes. He’s not alone

In 1975, at the height of New York City’s financial crisis, President Ford announced he would deny federal aid to help the city avoid bankruptcy. The Daily News ran an iconic headline the next day: “FORD TO CITY: DROP DEAD.” Today the headline might read: “NEW YORK TO MILLIONAIRES: DROP DEAD.” The latest example of New York’s politicians bitterly...

November 10, 2019

Local Government

Housing alone won’t solve homeless crisis – Drug addiction and mental illness must be treated

Steve Adler, the mayor of Austin, Texas, was on Fox News defending his city’s homeless policies Tuesday during an interview with Bill Hemmer. Last summer, the all-Democratic 10-member Austin City Council voted to lift the city’s ban on sleeping or camping on public property, such as sidewalks and parks – except for City Hall itself. Immediately following the vote, Austin’s...

November 10, 2019

Health Care

The employer-health insurance connection an ‘accident of history’

Everyone likes the idea of fair competition. That’s why everyone supported the 2007 investigation of an N.B.A. referee who knowingly influenced the outcome of professional basketball games on which he or his associates had placed bets. There was an outcry by the players, the owners, the league, and the fans — because the idea of picking winners...

November 9, 2019

Local Government

Texas Voters Approve Billions in New Debt

Texas Voters Approve Billions in New Debt On Tuesday, voters approved an overwhelming majority of the $9 billion-plus in new debt pitched by cities, counties, school districts, and special districts, according to the Texas Comptroller’s Bond Election Roundup website. Here’s how the top 10 largest new debt proposals fared and a few observations to boot....

November 8, 2019