Beef Prices
What to know: The U.S. has resumed importing beef cattle from Mexico, following the New World screwworm outbreak.
The TPPF take: Cartels are exploiting Mexico’s cattle trade, even as Americans pay more for imported beef.
“Mexican cartels have worked their way into Mexico’s cattle business, extorting ranchers, controlling sales, and corrupting the records and documents used to move cattle legally,” says TPPF’s Ammon Blair. “But enforcement alone will not solve the problem. America also needs to rebuild its cattle herd.”
ATX Eager to Tax
What to know: The city of Austin’s mayor pro tem recently complained online that: “The 3.5% property tax caps the #TxLege passed are really starting to pinch cities (sic) budgets.”
The TPPF take: Texas’ property tax limit isn’t a cap and it isn’t the problem. The city’s bloated budget is the problem.
“Austin doesn’t have a revenue problem. It has a spending problem, aggravated by a waste, fraud, and abuse problem,” says TPPF’s James Quintero. “Austin’s budget woes will abate when city officials stop spending recklessly and start focusing on the basics — and nothing else.”
Big City Spending
What to know: It’s not just Austin; other Texas cities are also looking to raise taxes.
The TPPF take: The cities blame all this on the state – for restricting local property tax increases – and threaten to trim costs by closing libraries and laying off employees.
“It does not appear that they are looking at their own spending culture, which may reveal something they are missing,” says TPPF’s Sherry Sylvester. “City managers in all those cities have base salaries of over $400K– and by base, it means that add-ons like a $600 a month car allowance in Ft. Worth are not included. That seems like that’s a lot to pay people who can’t put together a balanced budget.”