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A Tax On Bad Math Skills

Remember being told that the Lottery would solve our education finance woes? Yep, that was a good one. Now the same band that brought us the state monopoly on games-of-chance want us to feel guilty that the poor and uneducated play the Lottery, and especially the...

Keeping The Budget Responsible

State Rep. John Otto of Dayton has it right: "Everything we do in Texas with regard to public policy starts and stops with the budget." Too few people in or out of the Legislature understand that, which is why its good to know Otto has been tapped to find ways to...

Superintendent Candid About Not Wanting to Face Voters

Larry Appel, Dumas ISD superintendent, denounced voter approval for tax hikes, saying "It is much harder to convince them to vote for a tax increase" since most voters don't "typically have kids in school." But it's their money. To take the analogy further, most...

Dodging Questions

Starting in early December, our Empower Texans PAC began sending a 4-page questionnaire to candidates and incumbents, regardless of party. These were questions culled from the responses a great many of our friends and readers proposed in the fall. More than half of...

D Is For Dinosaur, Or Dangerous

I don't know who to root for in this race, but the Democratic Primary out in El Paso is looking to be fun. State Rep. Norma Chavez, D-El Paso, is calling State Rep. Paul Moreno, D-El Paso, a 'dinosaur.' If so, then Moreno could probably be categorized as...

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Giving Us More Gas (Taxes)

Ever heard of the National Surface Transportation Policy and Revenue Commission? Well, they want your money. This quasi-governmental body is suggesting that gasoline taxes be TRIPLED over the next five years. Big Government, not Big Oil,  is already the biggest...

Clucking Hysteria

Hysterical pronouncements by politicians can lead to both bad policy and higher costs. You don't get much more hysterical than Arlington Mayor Robert Cluck, who told an audience that simply breathing the air in some parts of Texas places people “as at [much] risk...

Jumping Off Bridges

Yep, Mom was right: Just because the other kids are jumping off a bridge doesn't make it right. Writ large, that commonsense is found in the national economy. If Texas were to follow the big-spending, high-taxing path of all the cool liberal kids, like California and...

Dallas News Highlights Random Unfairness of Property Taxes

The Dallas Morning News reports that only 7 percent of homeowners challenged their 2006 appraisals. Although 54 percent of protesters got some relief, Richard Whittle was denied when he challenged the increase of his one-story Garland house by 67 percent to $135,490...

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