The legislative session has started, giving state lawmakers a chance to tackle both property tax relief and property tax reform. “Relief” refers to lowering tax bills while “reform” speaks to keeping them down. This write-up concerns itself with the latter, tax reform, and offers ideas on better protecting future tax relief from opportunistic local governments....
“To restore the soul and to secure the future of America – requires more than words. It requires that most elusive of things in a democracy: Unity. Unity.” President Biden would go on to use the word unity or versions of it a dozen more times in his 2021 inaugural speech, making it the central...
The death toll continues to rise in the California wildfires that have burned through the Los Angeles area in recent weeks. Now it appears that a suspect arrested near one of the fires “with a flamethrower” allegedly attempting to start more fires is an illegal immigrant. What’s more, his illegal status will be to his...
A Texas History Lesson on Trump’s Biological Truth Proclamation President Donald J. Trump’s unequivocal statement on Inauguration Day—that there are just two biological sexes in America—ends the heinous practice of using laws designed to protect women from sex discrimination to promote men pretending to be women. Trump’s Executive Order, “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism...
What does it mean to be a Texan? Perhaps Joanna Troutman thought about that as she carefully placed stitch after stitch, listening to the men of Macon, Georgia making their preparations. Joanna Troutman, just 18, had never seen Texas when she learned that a group of Georgia volunteers was setting off to come to the...
There’s an old saying that a good beginning makes a good end. Such will hopefully be the case when the dust settles on the state budget. On Wednesday, leadership in the Texas House and the Texas Senate introduced substantially similar base budget bills that included a raft of praiseworthy elements. For instance, both proposals held...
Every Friday morning at 8:30 a.m., I join the Cardle & Woolley show, Talk 1370 Radio, in Austin where we discuss who made the list of Winners & Losers for the week. The Texas Legislature is officially sworn in, the House has selected a speaker and we have 72 more hours left of President Joe...
“Texas: It’s like a whole ‘nother country” was the slogan of a tourism campaign when I was growing up. In means that, despite our allegiance to the United States of America and our shared foundational values, there’s something about the place we call home that helps us stand apart. Over the years, trying to figure...
Texas taxpayers are eager for the start of the next legislative session so that policymakers can tackle 2 big things next session: property tax relief and property tax reform. The former refers to lowering tax bills while the latter speaks to keeping them down. When considering tax reform, there are 3 major areas to take...
Texas has faithfully executed the law and played a vital role in national security — a role the state must now maintain and reinforce. The hard lessons Texas learned at its border have led to the creation of the largest state effort in national security in our nation’s history. Now is not the time to...
We can’t let the left forget the truth — Donald Trump’s policies will make Americans safer, more secure, and more prosperous. The memo appears to have gone out, and the legacy media has pivoted in unison to launch a new line of attack against the incoming Trump administration. The key buzzword is “cruel.” Don’t let...
The solution to California’s wildfires, as many fire experts argue, lies in a simple, time-tested practice: prescribed burns. California finds itself in an all-too-familiar inferno, with devastating fires in Los Angeles County crying out for reevaluation of fuel and forest management policies as well as other fire mitigation measures. While modern firefighting techniques have improved...