It’s 2018, and the days of warm, evening sun setting on scenic Texas plains are gone for some rural areas like Comanche County. Folks accustomed to unencumbered views will have to look elsewhere. Now, those views are pierced by the sharp teeth of a wind turbine. Summer breezes have transformed into the cyclical swooshing—and occasionally...
Wisconsin is confronting a skilled labor shortage and a state prison system operating above capacity. Neither of these problems have popped up overnight. The causes of these two phenomena are likely not related, but a partial solution can be. A recent Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel feature highlighted Wisconsin’s efforts to expand worker training and education as part of their...
Answer: Yes! A quick look at the data shows that there’s plenty of reason to support a third-party efficiency audit of the city of Austin’s finances. For fiscal 2018, the city’s budget totals almost $4 billion, which ranks on the high side compared to its peers. Of the big cities in Texas, only the city...
2018-08-Testimony- HouseCommittee on Public Education – CIE -Sass by texaspolicy on Scribd
California’s wildfires continue to burn out of control, with the Mendocino Complex Fire near Clear Lake in Northern California, at 283,800 acres, now considered the largest fire in modern California history. As of sunset Monday, it was only 30 percent contained and had burned 75 homes. More than 14,000 firefighters, including some from as far...
Regulatory growth since 1980 has contributed to at least $4 trillion in less U.S. economic output, according to research by the Mercatus Center. To let that sink in, this amount is equal to Germany’s economy, the size of the federal budget, and the combined economies of California and Texas. But, more importantly, it equals lost...
The most recent challenge to the Affordable Care Act, a Texas-led, 20-state lawsuit, made news when the U.S. Department of Justice conceded the unconstitutionality of the individual mandate. This action aroused passion, including concern even from groups opposed to the ACA. But, no one who dislikes the ACA as a policy should worry about the...
So far, Texas has resisted Medicaid expansion with its siren call of “free” federal money and “free” insurance. The San Antonio-Express News Editorial Board is now urging Texas to rethink Medicaid expansion (“Why it’s time for expansion of Medicaid,” July 29). But does Texas really want to rethink the Lone Star State out of the frying pan...
“Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” That old adage has been quoted by everyone from war generals to philosophy teachers across the world since the early 1900s. The reason being that, especially in public policy, it is crucial to reflect on what has worked and what has not to...
In April 2016, California Gov. Jerry Brown signed the state’s $15-an-hour minimum wage law into effect. As a consequence, the minimum wage went from $10 an hour to $10.50 an hour for businesses with 26 or more employees on January 1, 2017. On January 1 of this year, the minimum wage was hiked again to...
A recent Wall Street Journal article highlighted how the $4 trillion in total unfunded public pension debts of cities and states nationwide equals Germany’s economy. The WSJ figure below highlights how this massive sea of red ink means that there could be a tremendous burden on taxpayers as contributions rise or on public sector employees’...
There is no other way to say it: it is hot in Texas this summer. Let's take Sunday, July 22, when the temperature in Austin reached about 105. Electricity use in ERCOT, the competitive portion of Texas’ electricity market covering about 80 percent of Texans, topped out at about 71,444 megawatts. The available capacity, or supply,...