The Municipal Right of Way Fee

July 19, 2012

Municipal right of way fees cost Texas consumers and business more than $500 million every year.

“

May 2026’s Top 10 Most Expensive School Bonds

Next month, independent school districts (ISDs) will, again, ask voters to approve massive new borrowing schemes that threaten to unleash a wave of tax hikes and bigger bureaucracies. These fiscal excesses appear widespread too. Taxpayers in nearly 60 different counties will decide on one or more of the 109 individual propositions up for a vote this election cycle, according to the Texas Bond Review Board’s (BRB’s) bond election database. If these measures are entirely successful,...

April 21, 2026

Election Integrity

Ban Foreign Funding in Ballot Propositions

Despite federal laws prohibiting foreign funding of candidate elections, foreign individuals and entities are still able to fund campaigns related to state and local ballot initiatives in multiple jurisdictions, creating a loophole that hostile foreign actors can exploit to influence American elections. Key points: Federal law prohibits foreign nationals from contributing to candidate campaigns or...

April 6, 2026

Local Government

When Government Lobbies Itself: Why Texas Should Ban Taxpayer-Funded Lobbying

Texas local governments use taxpayer dollars to hire lobbyists to influence state legislation—creating conflicts of interest, distorting democratic accountability, and undermining the interests of Texas taxpayers. Key points: Taxpayer-funded lobbying expenditures more than doubled from the 85th to the 89th Legislature, now reaching as high as $111.5 million. Taxpayer-funded lobbyists consistently opposed legislation involving property...

April 6, 2026

Related content

May 2026’s Top 10 Most Expensive School Bonds

Ban Foreign Funding in Ballot Propositions

When Government Lobbies Itself: Why Texas Should Ban Taxpayer-Funded Lobbying