The Governor, Lieutenant Governor, and the Speaker of the House have all stressed the importance of property tax relief. The Comptroller too. And now the Texas Legislature has weighed in. Yesterday, the House and the Senate released their introduced budgets (see here and here), providing an outline of the tax relief package that could be...
School choice is surging in popularity: 74% of parents with school-aged children want control over their children’s education dollars. Here in Texas, a majority from across the political spectrum is on board. Now that state legislators have convened for the 2023 session, it’s time to make school choice a priority. Several lawmakers have already filed promising bills. For example, Senate...
The Biden administration’s assertion that by 2025, the United States will achieve a 25% reduction in homelessness is not only without precedent but also capriciously absurd. “All In” – the Biden administration’s new blueprint to reduce homelessness – is all wrong. Housing First, a policy experiment instituted by the Obama-Biden administration in 2013, grounds the plan. This approach...
After two years of observing the actions of the Biden administration with a growing sense of helplessness and outrage, House Republicans are finally in a position to effectually respond. Having assumed control of the House of Representatives, their investigations now leverage substantial resources and are backed by subpoena power. Fittingly, one of their first undertakings...
The Biden administration has released its plans to introduce a new income-driven repayment program for student loans. The proposed regulations are as bad as the early indications hinted they would be. For those just getting up to speed, a standard loan uses a fixed monthly payment and a predetermined number of payments (e.g., a car loan of $500 per...
America’s Justice Department has become politicized and the Biden documents scandal begs the question, what did Merrick Garland know? The political weaponization of the U.S. Department of Justice finally hit a wall last week as Attorney General Merrick B. Garland boxed himself into having to appoint a special counsel to examine classified documents squirreled away in multiple...
Teachers’ unions and Democrats want to perpetuate COVID pandemic forever Way to go, teachers unions! America’s school children were among the big casualties of COVID-19 pandemic policies. Shuttered schools and remote learning sank national math scores, slashed individual lifetime earnings, and stunted the economic growth potential. Once again, our children were political pawns in a...
On the day Democrat California Gov. Gavin Newsom was sworn into his second term in office, he took to Twitter to make a remarkable—even risible—claim, that “California is the true freedom state.” Newsom went on to write, “Protecting liberty from a rising tide of oppression taking root in statehouses. Weakness, masquerading as strength. Small men...
Ballots or bullets? Riot or representation? America has faced such crossroads in the past, in which violent unrest preceded change. Shays’ Rebellion in 1786 led to the Constitution. The Civil War resulted in emancipation. And anger with policing and the criminal justice system, with government COVID lockdowns, and with widespread disregard of election law and...
Texans are struggling with high property taxes, soaring prices, and stagnant income. As a result, most big-budget players favor some property tax relief. For instance, Gov. Greg Abbot declared his intention to use half of the actual surplus fund ($16.3 billion) for this initiative. Likewise, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick revealed that property tax relief is...
The legislative session is right around the corner and many things are starting to become clear—like how big the budget should be, how much money will be available for property tax relief, and what top state officials are saying about it all. With that in mind, here are five critical policy questions and answers about...
It’s truly disappointing that the New Year was rung in with headlines such as “New Orleans is ‘America’s Murder Capital’ of 2022,” after nine shooting incidents in just 24 hours at year’s end. As a native Louisianan, a former probation and parole officer, and the Louisiana State Director of Right On Crime, a criminal justice initiative of...