NEWS
HB304 Targets Vote Harvesting in Texas
On Tuesday, March 1, the House Select Committee on Voter Identification and Voter Fraud will begin hearing testimony on the Voter ID bill that passed the Texas Senate two weeks ago. While this is definitely a good start at combating those who wish to skew the will of voters, I believe there is more that could be done during this legislative session. During this session, as in previous sessions, Voter ID has been the main focus for combating fraud, but there is another problem plaguing Texas – vote harvesting.
Don’t Tap Rainy Day Fund
The Tea Party Caucus Advisory Committee, made up of 13 tea party organizers from around the state, have issued a unanimous call to the legislative Tea Party Caucus and statewide elected leaders to hold the line on spending the State’s Rainy Day Fund.
Liberals Flip Out Over Wisconsin Budget
Once again liberal hypocrisy is on full display and in such a beautiful way in Wisconsin. Due to a multi-billion dollar budget deficit, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker has decided to take on the unions who are burdening his states budget by temporarily cutting pay and limiting the practice of collective bargaining.
Dr. Z’s Bad Meds
Some pretty nasty medicine was prescribed by State Rep. John Zerwas, MD, that he thinks will “dull the edge” of the current budgeting process. Sorry, doc, but yours isn’t a very sound diagnosis.
Leave Payday Loans Alone
Too often ideas for government action are pushed with the excuse that the poor dumb citizens who built this country are in need of protection from their own stupidity.
Voters Still Saying CUT
No matter how liberals try to spin it, Texas voters say in a new poll they clearly want the state’s budget balanced by spending cuts. As our own poll found, those same voters won’t be happy with legislators who do anything else.
Loving Co. grows & so should ISD consolidations
Loving County, east of the Pecos River and just southeast of the Guadalupe Mountains, has long been the least populated county in Texas, and for the last 10 years, the smallest in the U.S. of A.
Don’t Bet Budget On Gambling
Enticing whispers are floating through Capitol halls that Texas can have it all: more revenues, lower taxes and balanced budgets. All that – and more! – would come simply by expanding legalized gambling in Texas. Such promises might look good under flashing neon at night, but simply don’t hold up under sober inspection in budgetary daylight.
Eltife’s Crazy Budget
Well, you should give State Sen. Kevin Eltife two points for consistency. It seems that his knee-jerk reaction to principled, fiscally responsible public policy is to decry it as “crazy” and “insane”.
Duncan on statewide school property tax
On yesterday’s Pratt on Texas, Senate State Affairs chairman Robert Duncan, SD28, explained his position on a statewide, as opposed to the existing local, property tax for public education funding.
The total interview is about 10 minutes long.
Fiscal Recklessness Threatens US
For nearly all of us, the size of the national debt is all but unimaginable. If you counted off 14.1 trillion seconds, it would take 447,000 years. Printing 14.1 trillion dollar bills would weigh more than 15 million tons – or, the weight of 136 aircraft carriers the size of the USS Ronald Reagan.
Education Spending: Texas vs. California
We Texans love to compare ourselves with California; we have created more private sector jobs, have a lower tax burden and lower unemployment rate, and folks are leaving the formerly ‘Golden’ State in droves to seek Lone Star prosperity. Without a doubt, there is much to cheer. There is one area, however, where indeed Texas is bigger, but it is nothing to celebrate.