Economy

SPEAKING FREELY: State government pushes more restrictions on beer industry

Excessive government intervention continues to brew trouble for the Texan beer business. The Foundation’s Carine Martinez-Gouhier’s recent Austin-American Statesman’s op-ed points out how recent legislation has tightened restrictions on brewer’s direct-to-consumer sales, reinforcing a longstanding posture favoring distributors. Since Prohibition, laws have kept the three tiers of the alcohol business strictly separated. Of the three...

February 2, 2018

Economy

THE CARBON FOOTPRINT OF A SANDWICH: Straw Laws, Meat Taxes, and when ‘Science’ Infringes on Freedom

  A story out of the United Kingdom details a University of Manchester research project to determine the carbon footprint of the humble sandwich. The upshot: a prepackaged and refrigerated breakfast sandwich with egg, bacon or sausage, produces as much carbon dioxide as a 12-mile car trip. No word on what kind of car the scientists assumed...

February 2, 2018

Taxes & Spending

SPEAKING FREELY: New graph shows Texan property taxes continue to grow recklessly

Yesterday, the Senate Select Committee on Property Tax Reform  released a shocking new chart showing property tax levy growth over the last ten years. It helps explain why Texans have become so fed up with property taxes. Source: Senate Select Committee on Property Tax Reform, Houston Hearing   The largest growth, as shown in this...

February 1, 2018

Economy

SPEAKING FREELY: City council proposes ordinance without regard for local businesses

Business and labor are two sides of the same coin. Hurt one and the other does not go about unharmed. The Austin city council ignores this truth with their newly proposed ordinance mandating paid sick leave. The proposed plan would force “any person, company, corporation, firm, partnership, labor organization, non-profit organization or association” in Austin...

February 1, 2018

Family

Texas is already taking effective steps to improve foster care without federal intervention

  In 2011, Children’s Rights, a New York offshoot of the ACLU, filed a federal class action lawsuit against Texas, claiming to represent the interests of a subset of the state’s foster children. This month a federal court in Corpus Christi issued a final order in the case. The ruling threatens hard-won reforms to the...

February 1, 2018

Economy

Why Texas laws have breweries shedding tears in their beer

  The direct result of a new law will discourage out-of-state entrepreneurs from opening new breweries with taprooms in Texas and limit the growth of existing ones. Special interests are at work to obtain government favors, the bitter fruit of which can be partially seen in the recent shakeup at the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission....

February 1, 2018

Criminal Justice

Trump’s Conservative Approach to Criminal Justice Reform

This commentary was originally featured in The Daily Signal on January 31, 2018.

February 1, 2018

Taxes & Spending

SPEAKING FREELY: New audit exposes more careless city spending in Austin

A stunning new audit of Austin’s Matched Savings Account (MSA) program reveals the city irresponsibly managed hundreds of thousands of dollars to the point of “basically giv[ing] away free money.” MSA’s stated purpose is to financially empower low-income citizens by amplifying their savings accounts, specifically to buy a house, start or grow a small business,...

January 29, 2018

Energy & Environment

Renewable Energy Subsidies: Picking Winners and Losers

The government shouldn’t pick winners and losers in the marketplace – but they try.  Renewable energy, driven by state and federal subsidies, is driving out baseload producers and jeopardizing the reliability of the electricity grid. According to ERCOT’s 2017 Capacity, Demand, and Reserves report, the expected 2018 peak reserve margin for the Texas electricity market has...

January 29, 2018

Property Rights

SPEAKING FREELY: Local Govt. Employment Surge Pushing Property Taxes Higher

Property taxes continue to skyrocket, at great expense to taxpayers and at great gain to Texas’ local governments. Despite repeated attempts to stifle a growing tax burden, the local property tax “remains the largest tax assessed in Texas” representing nearly half of all Texan tax revenue (47.92% in 2015). Not only is the property tax...

January 25, 2018

Taxes & Spending

Should Texas Keep Increasing Public Education Spending?

Texas’ public education spending, in inflation-adjusted dollars, has increased in recent years with little-to-no improvement in the quality of education received. A problem with the philosophy of throwing more money at the education problem expecting a different result is that it doesn’t work. As you can see in Figure 1, per-student education expenditures have been...

January 25, 2018

Economy

California and the definition of insanity: Why do Democrats love tax hikes so much?

  California is already seeing residents and businesses flee the state because of its sky-high taxes. Yet unbelievably, two Democratic state assemblymen have proposed to more than double the state business tax – hiking it from 8.84 percent to 18.84 percent on businesses with annual net incomes of more than $1 million. This would be the highest...

January 24, 2018