Clever Isn’t Always Smart
What to know: Four days before Christmas, the city of Austin’s Transportation Department tweeted the reworded song, “I Saw Mommy Killing Santa Claus,” with lyrics explaining that because she was texting, “She didn’t see him cross the street, now his body’s a red streak.”
The TPPF take: Maybe it’s a bad idea to use tax dollars to tell children their mother is guilty of vehicular manslaughter.
“There’s a right way to deliver a message and there’s a wrong way. The city’s Santa Claus-killing joke is definitely in the latter category. This is a good reminder that messaging matters,” says TPPF’s James Quintero.
For more on local government, click here.
A Bitter Wind
What to know: More and more ambitious offshore wind projects are being reexamined. Now developers say they’ll need more money to make the projects viable — money from taxpayers and ratepayers.
The TPPF take: TPPF is leading the fight to show how these offshore wind projects fail to live up to their promises.
“Filling the Gulf of Mexico with massive wind turbines would do none of the things that proponents promise,” says TPPF’s Robert Henneke. “But it would bring environmental harms, danger to humans and wildlife alike, and double down on unreliable energy. It would also enrich the foreign companies that dominate offshore wind in the U.S.”
For more on offshore wind, click here.
There’s a Surprise
What to know: California is bleeding residents and businesses—while other states, such as Texas and Florida, are reaping the benefits.
The TPPF take: There’s no mystery here; people seek greater freedom and opportunity—for themselves and their businesses.
“When coupled with California’s 46th-place ranking for state and local taxes in 2022 — New York was 50 — its heavy regulatory compliance burden, its business-crushing response to the Covid-19 virus, and crime with no consequences thanks to district attorneys in Los Angeles and San Francisco, it’s no wonder inbound movers from other states plummeted 38 percent while Californians fleeing out of state increased 12 percent last year,” says TPPF’s Chuck DeVore.
For more on California, click here.