Houston Finance Director Melissa Dubowksi told city council members to expect a shortfall of at least $160 million in the upcoming fiscal year 2025 budget.
Local
What Do North Texas Democrats Want to Hide From the Public?
Tarrant County Commissioners Roy Brooks and Devan Allen are seeking to have some of their communications involving immigration withheld from public view.
Dallas Democrat County Judge Calls for Nationwide Mask Mandate, Ban on Youth Sports
Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins is directly challenging President Trump’s leadership.
McKinney Mayor Orders Mask Mandate
The mayor’s executive order forcing businesses to mandate masks expires in seven days unless approved by the city council.
Still No Mask Mandate for Denton County
County officials are encouraging the public to voluntarily wear face masks and take other precautions to slow the spread of coronavirus in the community.
MOST RECENT
City of Fate Considers Raising Property Taxes
Proposed budget would raise property tax revenues over 26 percent from last year.
City of Austin, Travis County Clash Over Who Gets to Tax Austinites
Authorities from both the city and county are fighting over who gets to tax residents to pay for their personal construction projects.
Austinites: You’re About to Lose More Cash
Austin City Council can’t keep their hands off your wallet.
McKinney Previews Budget, Tax Increases
City officials propose a 6 percent increase in general fund spending for FY 2019-20 and what the city called the lowest property tax increase “in recent memory.”
Drag Queen Story Hour Concerns Austin Residents
Progressives’ transgender story time at public libraries raises concerns for safety and fiscal responsibility.
Fort Worth Mayor Pens Endorsement of Gun Control
Fort Worth Mayor Betsy Price is the latest North Texas mayor to sign onto a letter calling for the U.S. Senate to pass stronger gun control laws.
Austin City Council Declares Climate Emergency
Of all the issues plaguing Austin, the city council has decided climate is the one to declare an emergency for.
Is Grapevine-Colleyville ISD Struggling Financially?
New teachers in GCISD will receive $4,200 for school supplies as a gift from a nonprofit organization—rather than the district itself.
Midland Councilman J. Ross Lacy Abandons Re-Election Bid for Congressional Run
Midland City Councilman J. Ross Lacy has officially abandoned his re-election bid and announced his run for Congress.
Keller School District Seeks More Debt
Keller ISD to consider asking taxpayers to take on, and pay back, over $300 million of debt.
ARCHIVE
Dewhurst Questions Existence & Return of Surplus, But More Tax Cuts Now Can Help Avert Future Economic Slowdown
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 a modest increase in our expenditures." Dewhurst made similar remarks today at the Legislative Budget Board meeting where the LBB set the constitutional spending limit, which based on projected personal income growth, will allow a 13.11 percent increase in general revenue expenditures for the 2008-09 biennium.
Taxpayers vs. Spending Addicts in Abilene
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 county's situation to his personal budget at home: ''If your expenses continue to increase, why would you want to reduce your income?''
Texas Taxpayer Funded Lobbying & Blogging
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 purpose of this arrangement is to get TEA to agree to a swap between the money the district will receive to buy down school property taxes and the money they will owe the state in Robin Hood payments. Suffice it to say, the article states that some questioned why district officials just don't call TEA themselves to find out whether this is feasible.
Sen. Carona would rather do the wrong thing… on taxes?
State Senator John Carona (R-Dallas) is quoted by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram as saying that he'd rather "something wrong than do nothing." The sad thing is that in this case, the "wrong thing" he'd rather do is raise local taxes to pay for more wasteful mass transit spending, than "do nothing" which apparently includes making local governments squeeze more effiency out of their spending programs.
Houston Chronicle notes TFR
The Houston Chronicle's Janet Elliott noted in her blog this week the creation of TFR.
Howard About That! Legislator Files Bill to Fix Spending Limitation
As we reported earlier on this blog, we have urged the Legislative Budget Board (LBB) to adopt growth in gross state product instead of tot
al personal incomes as the index for measuring growth in the state's economy for purposes of calculating the constitutional spending limitation. Making this change would mean that Texas politicians could increase state spending by at least $3-$6 billion dollars less in the 2008-09 biennium than they could otherwise.
DallasBlog notes TFR’s launch
DallasBlog.com contributor (and editor of the Lone Star Report) Will Lutz noted the formation of TFR in a posting this morning. You can read his post here.
Â
Austin American-Statesman notes TFR formation
On the "Postcards from the Lege" section of the Statesman's website, reporter Mike Ward noted the formation of Texans for Fiscal Responsibility. Check out his actual posting here.
Sullivan to lead Texans for Fiscal Responsibility
|
New organization offers vision, leadership on tax relief, spending reforms Advocacy efforts focused on promoting sound fiscal policy among lawmakers, taxpayers |
AUSTIN, Texas – Unveiled in Austin today is a new organization, Texans for Fiscal Responsibility, developed to promote government accountability to taxpayers and citizens. The mission of TFR is to create and sustain a system of strong fiscal stewardship within all levels of state government that serves to empower all Texans.
Board chairman and Midland businessman Tim Dunn announced that the organization will be headed Michael Quinn Sullivan. Sullivan comes to TFR from the Texas Public Policy Foundation, where he served as vice president and director of media and government relations. TFR was originally founded in early 2006 as Empower Texans.