The Texas Capitol can often be the scene of strange phenomena. Enter funds consolidation—this government accounting gimmick actually allows liberal-leaning legislators to spend more of your money by first hoarding it. First some background. The state...
Building on their successful research of the Real Texas Budget and the Conservative Texas Budget, the Texas Public Policy Foundation released a paper today detailing the need for tax and expenditure limits to secure economic freedom for the future of Texas. In a...
A belief that our state government wastes money on pet projects is a truism of modern Texas politics. Despite a displeased frustration with well-funded political favoritism, taxpayers may not know the major reason why elected officials continually defend it: organized...
How effective would your budget be if you controlled only 17% of your discretionary spending? Under the current legislative appropriations process, Texas lawmakers do just that. It might seem puzzling to legislators or citizens who have the impression...
A lack of program-level transparency in the biennial state budget prevents legislators and citizens from knowing exactly what programs an agency supports in each appropriations cycle. Often, the only folks who know this information have an incentive to keep it from...
Thanks to big-spending legislators’ creative accounting and over-eagerness to spend your money, the 83rd legislature increased appropriations 26% over the previous legislature. Even though this represents a major increase, it would shock many taxpayers to know that...
In little over a week, the 84th session of the Texas Legislature will begin. Chief among the legislature’s responsibilities is the passage of a biennial state budget—even though a vast majority of legislators have no role in its formulation. Under the...
Democrats are lamenting their setbacks in a recent election that witnessed a clear mandate for conservative leadership. One of their biggest complaints: the loss of moderate Republicans. A major example outside of Texas sheds light on how Democrats rely on...
With the 84th session of the Texas Legislature still over a month away, big-spending politicians are already scheming on how to massively expand the next state budget, all while claiming fiscal discipline. The main obstacle to the grow-government crowd is our...
Texans take pride in our state’s frequent “Best in America” characterization when it comes to job creation. It should come as a surprise then that we are not rated the number one tax climate for business. According to the 2015 State Business Tax Climate Index,...