Last week, President Obama convened a “Summit on College Opportunity.” The gathering at the White House focused on “supporting colleges to work together to dramatically improve persistence and increase college completion.” For his part, the President lamented that “higher education increasingly feels out of reach.” True enough. Nationwide, college tuitions have increased 440 percent...
Texas’ cities, counties, school districts, and special districts are awash in red ink, and newly obtained data from the Bond Review Board (BRB) shows that the problem is only growing in scope and severity. According to the BRB’s latest figures, local government debt outstanding (principal only) grew to $205.3 billion in fiscal year 2014, an increase...
Property taxes have gone up nearly 80 percent this past decade and claim about 5 percent of a median household income. It’s hardly surprising, then, that some Texans cannot afford the upfront, lump-sum payment demanded by the government and instead seek to spread that cost out.
Texans went to the polls yesterday to decide whether to take $1.7 billion a year out the state’s savings account to build more roads, while Austinites decided if they want to go $600 million into debt to build a 9.5 mile, $1.4 billion light-rail line. Both choices presented to voters reflect an outdated approach to...
Recently, the Texas legislature devoted two days of hearings to the EPA’s Clean Power Plan, which was proposed last June. This rule aims to reduce the emissions of carbon dioxide from existing power plants by 30 percent. Although opinions widely vary in the testimony, one thing was clear: the EPA’s plan assigns to Texas a regulatory...
Many in higher education worry continuously over the fact that only roughly half of students who enroll in college ever graduate, and that those who do graduate often take more than four years to do so. But few seek to go to the roots to attempt to discover the ultimate causes explaining these depressing...
If you think President Obama’s unilateral exercise of executive powers granting near-blanket amnesty to illegal immigrants was an abuse of power, get a load of what this administration is doing over at theEnvironmental Protection Agency. The EPA’s proposed Clean Power Plan regulations are the most expansive and economically disruptive rules in four decades from an...
It’s hard to open a major newspaper without reading about another Texas city cutting a special deal with a private corporation. This happens so regularly that it almost seems normal for government to throw public money at well-connected private interests. But it isn’t. The proliferation of economic development incentives in Texas begs the question:...
In recent years, the public’s awareness of crony capitalism, whereby government picks winners and losers, has increased tremendously. This is a good thing for advocates of free markets, because no market can be free where politicians use the power and largesse of government to benefit the well-connected. Unfortunately, many see the federal government’s favoritism...
Despite the higher sales tax rate, this swap would benefit Texans because a sales tax is more transparent, efficient and simple than the 4,000-plus property taxes statewide, providing improved government accountability and more money in your pocket.
Over 6 million students enrolled in at least one online course during the fall 2010 term, an increase of 560,000 students over the previous year. With each additional online course taken, the need for space decreases.
The vastly greater opportunity to prosper in those states without an income tax provides evidence that Texas would be wise to never pass an income tax.