The city of Austin spends profusely. Its property tax is growing wildly. It’s drowning in debt. And to make matters worse, the future doesn’t look so bright for those footing the bill. Earlier this month, the city introduced its proposed budget for the upcoming 2025-26 fiscal year, which totals a massive $6.3 billion or $6,294...
Up to 17 million people may lose their healthcare coverage with the new changes to the Affordable Care Act marketplace under President Trump’s “One Big, Beautiful Bill” — including 1.7 million Texans. The OBBB cuts $1 trillion in healthcare spending over the next decade, mostly from Medicaid, the joint federal and state program that provides...
The city of Austin wants to raise your taxes. Again. And in a big way. On Tuesday, city councilmembers explored several tax increase proposals, most of which would require voter-approval in November. The options ranged from raising taxes only up to the 3.5% trigger, which would add $154.83 to the average homeowner’s tax bill, to...
According to the Bond Review Board’s most recent data, Texas’ local governments have accumulated an eyepopping $500 billion in debt, which is an increase of almost $40 billion from the prior year. That’s almost $16,000 owed for every man, woman, and child in the Lone Star State. Most of this debt comes from school districts,...
The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed into law on July 4, 2025, was supposed to be a decisive break from government intervention in energy markets. Instead, it became a masterclass in why energy subsidies represent one of the most persistent forms of government market intervention. When Congress first debated energy policy reform, the U.S....
Ideally, an inverse relationship exists between property tax rates and property values. As one goes up, the other should come down, lest the product of those two variables—i.e., one’s tax bill—shoot up as a result. Of course, Texas’ local governments aren’t well-known for lowering rates when values rise, or vice versa. Case-in-point: the city of...
During a recent trip to Europe for a political philosophy symposium, I was both impressed by the young leaders I met and concerned by the situations they were describing in their various home countries throughout the old continent. Young men and women, fluent in geo-politics and global current events alongside four to five different languages,...
After years of struggling with infertility and several autoimmune disease diagnoses, Clara was advised to begin IVF treatment. But Clara was concerned about the stress IVF would put on her body, so she and her husband chose a different path. At the age of 38, following three cycles of restorative reproductive medicine (RRM), Clara gave...
The legislative special session begins next week and there are several important issues on the Governor’s call, like property tax reform, bail reform and, of course, responding to the recent flooding tragedy. One issue that shouldn’t go overlooked is banning taxpayer funded lobbying. When the issue first popped up years ago many Texans believed it...
“You can’t come in for your steroid injections without scheduling an extra appointment because your insurance isn’t paying us enough.” That’s what I was told at my most recent visit to an orthopedic surgeon I’ve seen for years. I expected relief from my pain, not a surprise medical bill—or as I learned later, “cost-shifting.” My...
Every Friday morning, I join the Cardle & Woolley Show on 1370 Talk Radio in Austin to announce the week’s Winners & Losers. As we enter the “dead of summer” with what must now be officially referred to as “the first called Special Session,” scheduled to start Monday in the Texas Capitol, here’s who made...
On Thursday, the FOX television affiliate in El Paso, KFOX14, published an article related to local property taxes that is raising eyebrows for promoting 2 very misleading arguments. Let’s briefly review each one and see if we can spot the fallacy. The first troubled argument can be found in the opening paragraph, which advances the...