Picking Winners (Hint: Not Us)

What to know: Writing in the San Antonio Express-News, advocates of tax abatement deals say such agreements benefit Texans.

The TPPF take: The evidence is clear: At best, these incentives do not work; at worst, they can be harmful.

“Local tax abatement agreements (under Chapter 313 of the Texas Tax Code) allow businesses such as big solar energy developers to seek tax abatement agreements with school districts, with the implied (or explicit) threat that they can take their jobs and their future revenues elsewhere,” says TPPF’s Carine Martinez. “Research on the importance of such incentives on a business’s location choice has shown that many other factors come into play, and incentives are rarely at the top of the list.”

For more on Chapter 313, click here.


Leadership

What to know: A bill has passed in the Florida Senate that will make clear the rules for mail-in ballots and drop-boxes (Texas is considering a similar bill).

The TPPF take: The Texas legislation is now before the House.

“The bill addresses the fact that mail-in ballots can be too easily exploited by ballot traffickers in Texas,” says TPPF’s Chuck DeVore. “SB 1509 improves mail-in ballot integrity by requiring voters to provide their driver’s license or state ID card number or the last four digits of their Social Security number to apply for a mail-in ballot and when returning a mail-in ballot. It will go a long way to prevent ballot traffickers from easily exploiting the weaknesses in Texas’s election system.”

For more on mail-in ballots, click here.


This is Helpful?

What to know: At the University of Texas-Arlington, all incoming undergraduate students are required to take a one-credit class called “UNIV 1101, Career Preparation and Student Success.”

The TPPF take: This sounds harmless. It’s not. It’s being corrupted with critical race theory.

“This semester, it was ‘suggested’ to instructors that they spend a day on ‘white privilege,’” says TPPF’s Tom Lindsay. “It was also suggested that another day was to be spent on white privilege’s close cousin, ‘micro-aggressions.’”

For more on critical race theory at UTA, click here.