Thinking About Tax Hikes
What to know: Some San Antonio city councilmembers want to move forward with a big tax increase next year, potentially raising rates from $0.54 per $100/value to nearly $0.58 per $100/value. The proposal caused one city councilmember to respond: “Under no circumstances should we be raising the property tax rate on our citizens right now…We have structural problems here with the way we are spending money.”
The TPPF take: Now is not the time to raise taxes.
“Like many other localities, the city of San Antonio’s property tax levy has experienced tremendous growth over the last decade—far more than necessary when compared to population and inflation. Any proposal to increase this burden further borders on taxpayer abuse,” says TPPF’s James Quintero. “San Antonio doesn’t have a revenue problem. It has a spending problem.”
For more on local taxes, Click here.
Big Rigs
What to know: A driverless 18 wheeler has made a fully autonomous run from Houston to Dallas.
The TPPF take: Just as with all other technology, self-driving vehicles are a tool that can induce positive and negative outcomes.
“As a first principle, and for the sake of innovation broadly, it is crucial that Texas continue to hold the line on the regulation-heavy instincts of states like California and Illinois,” says TPPF’s David Dunmoyer. “With responsible guardrails in place and the ingredients for an innovative hotspot, Texas will continue to lead the nation as the exemplar of responsible technology that seeks to serve humanity, and not the other way around.”
For more on self driving cars, Click here.
Qatar
What to know: Texas A&M’s controversial campus in Qatar will finish its semester online, after Iranian missiles directed at Qatar landed nearby.
The TPPF take: That campus will soon lose its Texas A&M branding, but it’s not going anywhere.
“While the Texas A&M name and standalone branding will be phased out by 2028, the engineering programs, faculty expertise, physical infrastructure, research pipelines, and intellectual property are not disappearing,” says TPPF’s Kate Bierly. “They are being absorbed and restructured under Hamad Bin Khalifa University (HBKU), another institution controlled by the Qatar Foundation located in the same Education City building. What Texas is calling a shutdown is better described as a handover that preserves Qatari control while removing the visible A&M university logo.”
For more on Qatar, Click here.