Coming Soon: Historic Tax Relief
What to know: The Texas House and Senate have reached agreement on a historic $18 billion tax relief package that will dramatically lower taxes, reform the appraisal system, and put Texas on the path to property tax elimination.
The TPPF take: Everyone will see their tax bills go down in a big way.
“The 2023 legislature is on track to deliver massive tax relief that will ease the burden for millions of tax-weary Texans and keep the Texas economy strong,” says TPPF’s James Quintero. “Also, policymakers made tax compression a major part of their plan, meaning that we’re continuing down the path of eliminating the school district maintenance and operations (M&O) tax. That’s welcome news for everyone interested in overhauling Texas’ tax system.”
For more on property taxes, click here.
Hiding the Ball
What to know: Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas is playing a shell game with illegal immigration numbers, even as his department shields millions of migrants from deportation.
The TPPF take: Because of the Biden administration’s actions, the flow of migrants into the U.S. is unimpeded.
“It doesn’t really matter what the U.S. government says, its actions don’t match its words,” says TPPF’s Rodney Scott. “What the Biden administration is doing totally overrides what the administration is saying. When would-be migrants see their friends and families posting from America, they come. And they tell their friends. Every successful crossing encourages more.”
For more on the border crisis, click here.
Inventing a Crisis
What to know: The media continues to misconstrue a new Texas law—which hasn’t even gone into effect yet—as a danger to Texas workers by eliminating “local ordinances requiring water breaks.”
The TPPF take: No, the Texas preemption law isn’t killing Texans—and it won’t, even when it goes into effect.
“Only Austin and Dallas even have ordinances requiring water breaks,” says TPPF’s Roy Maynard. “What’s more, we submitted a Public Information Act (PIA) request to the city of Austin to ask whether its ordinance mandating water breaks has ever been enforced. The city responded with more than 9,000 pages of material (with just a few entries on each page). Yet in those thousands of pages of documented code enforcement actions, the city provided documentation for exactly zero citations ever having been issued for violating this specific ordinance.”
For more on Texas preemption law, click here.