After almost eighteen continuous hours of discussion, interrogation, and confrontation, the overnight debut of HB 1 ended in the Texas House with a 141-5 vote to passage at 5:39 a.m. on April 1. This base budget plan, submitted by Rep. John Otto (R-Dayton), arrived on...
House budget writers added an additional $800 million to the 2016-17 budget plan on Wednesday in an effort to increase education spending. This brings the House’s proposed education spending to a total of $3 billion, well beyond the $2.2 billion that’s needed to...
On Tuesday morning, the House Appropriations Committee unanimously passed the budget plan provided in House Bill 1. HB 1, as passed by the committee, will spend $209.8 billion over the 2016-17 biennium, an increase of $7.4 billion from the $202.4 billion base budget...
On Tuesday morning, witnesses testified before the Senate Finance Committee concerning SJR 2 and SB 9 by State Sen. Kelly Hancock (R-North Richland Hills). Ursula Parks, representing the Legislative Budget Board (LBB), argued against the population-plus-inflation...
The Senate Finance Committee met Tuesday morning to discuss legislation that would require the adoption of the population-plus-inflation metric to calculate the state’s spending limit. This metric, which is based on gradual trends and hinders the rate of governmental...
State Sen. Brandon Creighton (R-Conroe) presented his three bills to the Senate Finance Committee last week that aim to provide relief from the state's franchise tax, also known as the gross margins tax. In his testimony, Creighton observed how the free economic...
Legislators have filed bills seeking to repeal a slurry of petty and outdated taxes. For many of these taxes, administrative costs currently exceed revenue collections gained, making them highly inefficient. Others exist merely as burdensome relics of failed...
Analysts at the Texas Public Policy Foundation (TPPF) have compared Texas spending limit methods over recent biennia and found that application of the population-plus-inflation metric to each budget since 2006 results in a trend of relatively constant spending limits....
Legislation filed by State Sen. Van Taylor of Plano is designed to discourage legislators from monetizing public service. Calling SB 555 the "Serve the People, Not the Lobby Act,” Taylor's legislation would prohibit a registered lobbyist from being eligible to be a...
The Senate base budget plan has received much attention since it was released on January 25, 2015, primarily for its provisions for $4 billion in tax relief for property and business owners. Conservatives have applauded this measure, while moderates have decried it as...