This series evaluates five recommendations designed to create a more accountable, transparent budget process. The reforms include: strengthening the current spending limit; returning surplus revenues to taxpayers; ensuring dedicated funds are used only for their original purpose; providing greater detail to the state budget; and, posting agencies checkbooks online for public review.
Toward a More Well-Informed Citizenry
The 86th Texas Legislature sought to enhance public debt transparency through the creation of Voter Information Documents (VID). However, this instrument is not accurately providing debt amounts and needs reform. Key points: Governments are manipulating the VID methodology to deny voters accurate tax impact estimates. Many VIDs are dissimilar, making comparative analysis challenging. There is...