by Mlevin | Jan. 18, 2007 | State
Today, State Rep. Bryan Hughes (R-Mineola) filed House Bill 640 to require all state agencies to post a list of their expenditures online. The bill states: Each state agency that maintains a generally accessible Internet site or for which a generally accessible...
by Mlevin | Jan. 16, 2007 | Local
Once in a while the mainstream media hits the nail on the head and such is the case with a staff editorial in today's Lubbock Avalanche-Journal. This piece enclosed below in no uncertain terms urges the Legislature to return the surplus to taxpayers. Further, it...
by Mlevin | Jan. 14, 2007 | State
The Houston Chronicle has a disturbing piece about some Wharton County property taxpayers who find themselves as defendants in a lawsuit filed by their appraisal district after they successfully obtained reductions from the Appraisal Review Board (ARB). The chief of...
by Empowertexans | Jan. 12, 2007 | State
 AUSTIN, Texas – Texas Governor Rick Perry today issued an emergency declaration on the issue of tax relief.  The president of Texans for Fiscal Responsibility, Michael Quinn Sullivan, said lawmakers should view tax relief as their highest priority this...
by Admin | Jan. 12, 2007 | Local
Governor Perry had a great line reported in the state's media outlets:Â Â Â Â Â Â "Only in Austin and Washington would returning $8 billion to citizens be considered spending."That's a great point. The state's spending cap was called the...
by Mlevin | Jan. 11, 2007 | Local
Speaking at a Capitol news conference yesterday, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst said "We don't have a 14.3 billion dollar surplus." He asserted that "when you look at promised property tax cuts out to 2011, we're looking at a balanced budget with just...
by Empowertexans | Jan. 10, 2007 | State
Leaders of seven conservative organizations today called on legislators to “return the certified surplus to Texas taxpayers.” Earlier this week the state’s new Comptroller, Susan Combs, certified for legislative use a $14.3 billion surplus. Signing...
by Empowertexans | Jan. 8, 2007 | State
Texas Comptroller Susan Combs today officially certified the state’s surplus at $14.3 billion. The president of Texans for Fiscal Responsibility, Michael Quinn Sullivan, offered the following statement: “The surplus is not found money, but rather the...
by Admin | Jan. 8, 2007 | State
In responding to the official revenue estimate issued by Comptroller Susan Combs, Gov. Perry said, “This surplus should reinforce our commitment to the principles and policies that helped create it. State leaders must continue to be fiscally disciplined, we must...
by Mlevin | Jan. 7, 2007 | Local
The Abilene Reporter-News has a revealing piece today discussing how Abilene taxpayers support revenue and appraisal caps while local officials are frightened by the prospect. The most eye-opening quote is:Taylor County Commissioner Chuck Statler likened the...
by Empowertexans | Jan. 4, 2007 | State
That big pile of money belongs to Texas’ taxpayers. That legislators aren’t falling all over themselves leading into the session to return it completely to the taxpayers is more than a little disappointing. By spending the surplus, they will be taxing us...
by Mlevin | Jan. 3, 2007 | State
The Legislative Budget Board meeting scheduled for Thursday, January 4 has been postponed to Thursday, January 11, apparently to give legislative leaders more time to chat with members about the setting of the spending limitation pursuant to the Constitution. TFR...
by Admin | Jan. 3, 2007 | State
State Senator Robert Duncan (R-Lubbock) got it right in today’s Dallas Morning News when he said, “I don’t think the spending cap was designed to prevent tax cuts.” What spending cap? The so-loose-as-to-be-non-existent cap added to the state...
by Admin | Dec. 27, 2006 | State
by Mlevin | Dec. 27, 2006 | Local
The Galveston Daily News reported this month that the board of the Galveston Independent School District voted to pay the Austin consulting firm Moak, Casey & Associates up to $15,000 to lobby the Texas Education Agency (TEA) on their behalf. The specific...
by Admin | Dec. 27, 2006 | State
The Beaumont Enterprise is reporting that outgoing-Comptroller Carole Keeten-Strayhorn has in her waning days in office hired on campaign staff and added employees. Cost to taxpayers? $40,000, for two months of work. For work that apparently wasn’t needed while...
by Mlevin | Dec. 25, 2006 | State
The Tax Foundation has released a new report with some bad news for Texas taxpayers that many probably already knew all too well. The report, which focuses on property taxes across the nation, found that Texas has the ninth highest property taxes of the 50 states as...
by Admin | Dec. 22, 2006 | State
Economist Stuart Greenfield opined in the subscription-based Quorum Report this week that while Texans are incredibly more generous individuals than others in the country (that part is right), our public policies keep the “state” from being as generous as...
by Mlevin | Dec. 21, 2006 | State
How do Texas college students know their tuition money and the share of taxes their parents paid that go towards higher education are actually used for expenditures that enhance the education they receive? Unfortunately, they don’t because the state’s...
by Admin | Dec. 15, 2006 | State
Does big government help people? The assumption made all too often is that the bigger the government, the more expansive the program, the more helpful it is. Indeed, we see that in the metrics used to justify continuing big government programs: how much money we...
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