The Texas Legislature finished its work two months ago with lawmakers failing to deliver on many of the issues that matter most to taxpayers. With complete Republican control, lawmakers had time to designate an official Twitter hashtag and play a football game among...
After convincing the state to provide Houston with $50 million in disaster relief in order to avoid increasing property taxes, Mayor Sylvester Turner seems to have reversed his course. City Controller Chris Brown, whose responsibilities include verifying the tax rate,...
Big city officials are always eager to borrow and spend big bucks, and send the bill to taxpayers. The city of Dallas is no different. Dallas City Council wants to tax and spend over a billion dollars on a huge wish list of city projects. On November 7, they’re asking...
Since its inception, the story of Retama Park has never been completely told. News articles that touch on the track usually lack needed context and key elements. This may be attributable in part to the complexity of the endeavor or the power of the individuals...
Serving as mayor of a big city provides some perks; generous pay and benefits, national and international recognition, and apparently, extensive travel. Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner is nearing his two-year mark in office, and in those first twenty-four months he’s...
A freshman state representative from East Texas is going to have to defend his weak record on pro-life issues as one of the leaders of the Texas pro-life movement is challenging him head-on in the Republican primary. Emily Kebodeaux Cook, the political director and...
During May elections, Ector County saw a major shift in leadership on the county-operated Medical Center Hospital Board – an expected change considering lingering controversy stemming from decisions made by the previous board, such as retracting medical coverage for...
The Houston Bureau of Empower Texans/Texans for Fiscal Responsibility is excited to issue the following Houston ISD endorsements for the upcoming November 7th election. Endorsements were made through a combination of candidate questionnaires, interviews, and input...
In the wake of the incredible devastation caused by Hurricane Harvey, several local government entities are moving to support the reappraisal of homes damaged by the storm. Local governments are allowed to reappraise damaged properties under Section 23.02 of the Tax...
Following a special session in which Gov. Greg Abbott asked lawmakers to enact limits on local government overreach, a municipal lobbying group is celebrating lawmakers who stood in the way of the governor’s pro-taxpayer agenda. The Texas Municipal League (TML), is an...
After experiencing the heckler’s veto first hand, a conservative state lawmaker is calling on the leaders of the Texas Legislature to study ways in which to protect Texans’ free speech rights on college campuses. State Rep. Briscoe Cain (R–Deer Park), a freshman...
Several articles are surfacing this week speculating that former presidential advisor Steve Bannon wanting to find and support challengers to Republican Senate incumbents could cost the GOP its majority. It appears individuals making such a claim have forgotten how to...
Texans may be surprised to learn that the state’s voter registration process relies upon an honor system—no proof of citizenship is required for voter-registration applicants. Texas election laws are in need of serious reform. Not only does state law not require proof...
Dallas County students, school districts, and taxpayers have a big problem: a bus bureaucracy that is dangerous, unreliable, and so financially mismanaged that it’s on the verge of bankruptcy. That’s why a coalition led by Dallas-area elected officials is encouraging...
After caving in to the demands of a small group of protestors, cancelling an event, and ordering police to escort a conservative lawmaker off of their campus, Texas Southern University issued a press release to try to explain what happened. But the record tells a...
At the Bexar County Republican Party Executive Committee meeting this evening, a number of conservative precinct chairs attempted to bring up a Rule 44 censure resolution against their state representative, Texas House Speaker Straus, but were obstructed by Bexar...
My family and I moved to McKinney back in January from California, where I served in law enforcement for 21 years. I watched local jurisdictions annex land from “county” into “city” largely for financial gain. But what I witnessed in doing so...
A battle is brewing between the pro-TX Speaker Joe Straus Establishment supporters and the anti-Straus grassroots liberty-minded forces tonight, Monday, Oct 9, at the Bexar County Executive Committee (CEC) meeting in San Antonio. The pro-Straus people are in...
In what seems like an epidemic on college campuses, another conservative speaker has been silenced and removed from the campus of a public university, this time while attempting to give a speech about the Texas Legislature. State Rep. Briscoe Cain (R-Deer Park) was...
