This issue of Veritas, the quarterly publication of the Texas Public Policy Foundation, features solutions to correctly measure poverty, introduces the Texas Prosperity Promise, explores whether free college is a good idea, a farewell from our CEO Brooke Rollins, an introduction of Lieutenant Colonel Allen West and the Booker T. Washington Initiative, and recaps the 2018 Policy Orientation and Visionaries Meeting.
Texans appreciate living in a state that values liberty, sensible business policy, and, perhaps most importantly, a strong dislike for taxes, which inevitably infringe on the first two values. But, in comparison with other states, Texas is beginning to lose its competitive edge in business climate as noted in the Tax Foundation’s recently released 2019...
Does history suggest that property taxes are too high in the city of Austin? And, if so, have local decision-makers actively helped or hurt the situation? To help answer these questions, let’s review the city’s 2024 Annual Comprehensive Financial Report (ACFR) and gather four types of data—i.e., tax levies, local population, total tax rates, and taxable values—over a 10-year time horizon. Using these audited estimates, we can gauge the growth of government (i.e., tax levy trends), assess its reasonability...