The House Committee on Ways and Means recently heard nine hours of testimony on two controversial economic development provisions of the Texas Tax Code. Chapters 312 and 313 allow local governments to reduce the amount of property taxes paid by favored businesses that locate or expand within the district’s geographic boundaries. Both programs have significant...
New Mexico is the latest state to succumb to the siren song of the environmental misinformation powering the Green New Deal. Just a few months after New Mexico accepted nearly half a billion dollars from the federal government for oil and gas leases, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham signed a “zero-carbon” energy mandate on public utilities,...
President Trump has had a very good week. But no decision he has made is more consequential or more correct than his decision to stand with Texas and 19 other states in challenging the constitutionality of ObamaCare. While the left and the center-right “intelligentsia” often malign the president for acting thoughtlessly or impulsively, the defining characteristic of...
Is anyone else saturated by the media’s coverage of Democratic New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s proposed energy revolution? Perhaps more appropriately called an energy experiment, the heralded Green New Deal assumes that the renewable energy generated by wind turbines and solar panels can completely replace fossil fuels by 2030. Yet the viability of a policy to power...
President Trump’s executive order regarding free speech on college campuses is a solid first step toward restoring colleges and universities to their original mission — guarding free inquiry and the free exchange of ideas. The executive order — the signing of which I was honored to attend — will tie federal funds to real, measurable...
Since President Trump signed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 into law in December 2017, private sector job growth in states with smaller state and local tax burdens has run 77% ahead of states with heavier tax loads from December 2017 to February 2019. Among its provisions, the new law limited state and...
Last week was an eventful one for higher education. On March 18, President Trump released his proposal for reauthorization of the Higher Education Act. Three days later, the president issued an executive order focused primarily on campus free speech. The order also contains some exciting news about expanded reporting on how much students earn by program (e.g.,...
When the Green New Deal comes to the floor of the Senate, its supporters won’t want to talk about it. After the publication (and near-immediate deletion) of an FAQ page detailing Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s lurid plans for “massive transformation of our society” through the Green New Deal, some supporters publicly distanced from the specifics; now the bill is being...
The Texas Legislature is grappling with its biennial budget negotiations, with Wednesday expected to be a long night in the state’s House of Representatives. That’s where 307 spending amendments will be debated. There are three main issues at stake: overall spending, public education finance reform including teacher salaries, and property tax relief. Starting with discretionary spending,...
The 86th Texas Legislature is already halfway over. The House’s budget will be on the floor on Wednesday. This is perfect time to review each chamber’s budget priorities. Unfortunately, it looks like this budget could exceed your ability to pay. The good news is that there’s time to avoid that failure. Let’s begin by reviewing...
In his book The Way to Wealth (perhaps America’s very first book of financial advice), Benjamin Franklin said, “An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.” Franklin might amend that today, in light of the skyrocketing cost of a university education, the crushing burden of student debt, and the mismatch between graduates and available jobs. Indeed, later...
The State of Texas spends too much and Texans pay skyrocketing tax bills. Texans can obtain lasting, meaningful property tax relief by slowing excessive state and local spending growth and using state surplus revenue to eliminate M&O school district property taxes.