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Local Texas News
Analysis: On Average, San Augustine Taxing Entities Lower Taxes
For the most part, one East Texas county balanced rising property values with efforts to keep taxes predictable.
Parents Win: Canyon ISD Puts Bibles Back in School Libraries
Texas legislators blasted the district’s superintendent, who blamed the Bible removals on a law prohibiting sexually explicit content.
Legislation Filed to Abolish the Austin City Council
The legislation, if enacted, would create a state-run District of Austin.
Sabine County Tax Trends: Rising Appraisals Drive Increased Revenues
Even if tax rates are kept in check, rising appraisals can eat up any savings citizens would otherwise see.
Local Archive
Public universities decry budget cuts but fill classrooms with waste
More than a few are beginning to understand my comments about how many are more concerned with, and more ready to financially support, their university than their church. I do mean such as a deep criticism of social priorities but, in a more practical sense my point...
Tax “Alternatives” May Still Be Inequitable
Last legislative session, State Senator Robert Duncan proposed a state constitutional amendment to create a statewide property tax for public education. This idea has been proposed as a “fair” solution to the current property tax system, and seems to sit better with...
Administrative Excess in Dallas ISD
What’s $500,000 worth to you? To Dallas ISD, that’s the price to pay for new Superintendent Mike Miles. He’ll be taking over a district currently in the process of suing the state for more money. Dallas ISD just hired Mike Miles as the district’s new superintendent at...
Money To Play With
The next time bureaucrats in higher education complain about parents, students and legislators suggesting there should be more oversight of our state-financed institutions, ask them about universities buying restaurants far above market-value. And for no immediate...
Maybe They Should Call It the “Superintendent” PAC
Here we are, less than 20 days out from the start of early voting. In the next few weeks, the Texas Parent PAC has threatened promised to release at least 25 endorsements in legislative races across the state, and they started with one of the obvious ones, Trent...
Who Is The “Empty Suit” In Texas’ U.S. Senate Race?
In what is surely among the oddest claims of the Texas GOP U.S. Senate race, former Dallas mayor Tom Leppert has put out a new television advertisement in which he claims all of his opponents are “empty suits”. Leppert’s largely self-funded campaign has the money to...
Fighting the “Spend More” Rhetoric with a Savings Plan
Can you hear the drumbeat for "spend more" to "save our schools" (and don't forget - it's "for the children")? It will get a whole lot louder the closer we get to the primary election, which is now a mere 40 days away. "Spend more" isn't a solution. Options for a...
Time for the Legislature to be Assertive
Let's just put all the cards on the table: Governor Perry's new Texas Budget Compact represents bold leadership and a commitment to solutions. The "leadership" in the Texas Legislature has expressed extreme reluctance to back (and therefore enact) the tenets of the...
The Other “Inevitable” Primary Race
As the presidential primary draws to an unspectacular and grudging end, the sideline chorus is already singing about lower primary turnout on May 29, and how that may affect some of the major races left on the ballot. Let me warn you against the temptation to prove...