Texas’ franchise tax was expanded in 2008. With four years’ experience in collecting what is referred to as the “margin” tax, it is clear that abolishing the margin tax is the right “fix” for Texas.
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Chuck DeVore is the vice president of national initiatives at the Foundation. He writes about the economy and how energy, tax and regulatory policies influence general prosperity, and he frequently appears on Fox News. He also guides the Foundation’s growing national work in criminal justice reform. He authored the book The Texas Model: Prosperity in the Lone Star State and Lessons for America.
James Quintero is the policy director for the Texas Public Policy Foundation’s Government for the People campaign. Since joining the Foundation in 2008, Quintero has focused extensively on: state & local government spending, taxes, debt, public pension reform, annexation, and local regulations.
Texas’ franchise tax was expanded in 2008. With four years’ experience in collecting what is referred to as the “margin” tax, it is clear that abolishing the margin tax is the right “fix” for Texas.
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Last month, the Austin American-Statesman launched an interesting new city salary database that shines a light on the “top-paid city of Austin employees of 2025.” The new details are quite interesting, especially given the city’s own recent admission that “Austin is experiencing a housing affordability crisis”—which is, of course, chiefly driven by government action. Using this tool, it’s obvious that city workers have become numerous and well-compensated. As the Statesman itself notes: “The city of Austin employed 13,567 full-time workers...
The Lost Creek neighborhood in Austin, Texas, is charting a way for communities to band together and break up with abusive city governments. It’s not often that a low-key municipal election makes international news, but one recent contest in an affluent Austin suburb has people excited about its result — and its potential implications for...
Part 3: How Texas Can Solve Its Winter Reliability Problem Five years after Winter Storm Uri, the ERCOT grid is still not ready for the next major winter storm. The first two installments of this series showed that demand has grown more than 20% since 2021 while firm generation capacity has barely budged, and the...