Gov. Greg Abbott and the Texas Legislature made school finance reform and property tax relief the signature issue of the 86th legislative session. The final result was HB 3, a monumental school finance bill that dedicated $5 billion in state tax dollars to local maintenance and operations (M&O) property tax relief. That’s important because maintenance and...
The modest participation of our volunteer military in the Independence Day celebration in our nation’s Capital has sparked debate. That’s both curious and troubling. This may be explained in light of a new Gallup Poll showing that Americans have the lowest pride in their nation since the question was asked in 2001, with Gallup noting, The greatest disparities in...
One hundred years ago, Congress passed the 19th Amendment, giving women the right to vote. Since then, voters have used this right to choose many women to represent us. This is a wonderful thing, but ironically, some progressive women are now advancing climate policies that would harm the world’s poorest women the most. Consider two...
The U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency has now ended its policy of separating minors from their parents at the border; that’s a move that a majority of Americans — even those who want stronger border security — support. That’s because Americans are seemingly united in the belief that there is an innate sanctity to the nuclear family; the...
It often baffles me why so many politicians and CEOs—folks who have fought hard to achieve their positions—exhibit so much fear. The slightest dip in polls or profits seems to drive them into a headlong flight for the safety of big government. Nowhere is this more evident than in the response to renewable energy subsidies....
Citing a report from Hired, a job site, the Austin Business Journal ran an article headlined, “Study: When adjusted for cost of living, Austin tech workers make more than San Francisco peers.” The piece observed, “…for the fourth year in a row, Austin tech workers have the highest average salary when adjusted based on cost of living… (with) Austin’s tech workers…...
The Institute for Justice has taken up the cause of doctors in Texas who want to offer their patients affordable medications at the point of care—a practice known as physician dispensing of prescription drugs. As the doctors point out, the Texas ban on physician dispensing is irrational. “As 45 other states have recognized, doctor dispensing...
New wind and solar farms are continuing to be constructed all over Texas. Longroad Energy, a company headquartered in Massachusetts, has recently announced plans to build two new renewable energy plants in Texas, which are both set to be completed in the year 2020. Earlier this month, Longroad Energy signed a 15-year Virtual Power Purchase...
The Texas Legislature is giving Texas school districts approximately $700 more per student in taxpayer money to spend nearly as they wish, along with many other monetary bells and whistles. In House Bill 3, recently signed by Governor Abbott, there is more money for full-day pre-kindergarten, teacher salaries, bilingual education, special needs, and disadvantaged students....
The Affordable Care Act (ACA) and many various versions of “Medicare for All” have something in common: they all want to limit your options: From which doctors you can see to the type of treatment you receive, and the kind of coverage you can get, both our current system and the socialized medicine proposed by the Left...
This month, the Trump administration served as a catalyst for perhaps the largest criminal justice public-private-partnership ever assembled, jobs for formerly incarcerated people as they reenter society. As a former prisoner myself, this initiative is personal to me. When behind bars, no one asked me for money – but nearly everyone asked me for a job. Virtually all of...
Since President Trump signed the big tax cut and reform act in December 2017, the pace of private-sector job creation in the nation’s 27 low-tax states has doubled that of their high-tax peers through May of 2019, according to data released today from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Manufacturing job growth is even higher with a 126% job-creation...