In 2023, the Texas Legislature passed a historic tax relief package to lower school taxes, primarily through tax rate compression and an increase in the homestead exemption. Together, these measures were supposed “to cut the average homeowner’s tax bill by roughly $1,300 per year,” thereby providing much-needed relief to those laboring under the twin ills...
The Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts has published a new report offering interesting insights and details on local property tax trends, with a particular emphasis on “tax rate and value information for tax years 2022 and 2023.” This information has the potential to illuminate certain aspects of the hotly anticipated property tax relief and reform...
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 previous week. President Donald Trump’s makes it clear daily that he intends to change pretty much everything, which gets him on the top of...
“We have school choice in Texas. If you don’t like your public school, you can go to private school or homeschool.” That’s a familiar refrain from opponents of creating school choice programs, like vouchers or education savings accounts. They are, of course, technically correct because those are legal alternatives to sending kids to public school....
Congressman Tom Cole once stated, “Private ownership of property is vital to both our freedom and our prosperity.” This could not be truer, whether that includes one’s home, car, and the myriads of other types of real and intangible property. Protection of private property rights is a cornerstone of both Texas and the U.S. While...
The next Texas Legislature began on January 14, 2025, giving state-level policymakers their next best opportunity to revisit property tax relief and property tax reform. The former refers to lowering tax bills while the latter speaks to keeping them down. This column concerns itself with the latter, tax reform, and offers several suggestions to protect...
The framers added the Fourteenth Amendment’s ‘subject to the jurisdiction thereof’ clause for an important, specific reason. In his first hours in office, President Donald J. Trump issued an executive order curtailing the practice of unlimited birthright citizenship. Many think the Fourteenth Amendment calls for citizenship for everyone born in America. Left-wing attorneys general in 18...
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 previous week. After Donald J. Trump’s Second Inauguration on Monday changed so many things, he’s got dozens of winners. The Texas Legislature has finished...
With the new year barely under way, the union assault on employers under the guise of worker protections already going strong. On January 9th, 2025, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) descended on Austin in attempt to expand their political machine. Combined, these...
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...