State

State Archive

Revenue Over Reform

There has been a great deal of Legislative attention focused on the hunt for new revenues, but almost none has been directed toward meaningful reform meant to avoid this type of shortfall in the future by limiting the state's overspending. While the Texas Senate...

Senate Can Get Budget Right

Budget hope is not lost in the Texas Senate. Indeed, resurgent conservatives in the upper chamber are pushing the right priorities. Now we'll see if leadership will respond with the right numbers. The Senate's budget spends too much money that the state simply doesn't...

Swapping Taxes

It doesn’t violate the no-new-taxes pledge a majority of Republican House members took, but subscribers to satellite TV may not appreciate that distinction when their bill goes up if legislators adopt a tax-swap proposal on Tuesday. On the other hand, small-business...

Retiring Advice from TDA?

Recently, The Texas Department of Agriculture (TDA) has begun telling folks where they should live and when they retire, but the question is why? Why do Texans need our Department of Agriculture to tell us were to live when in the latter years of life? Apparently,...

Back-Stopping the Budget?

With the Texas Senate poised to pass a budget that lives beyond the taxpayers’ means, the left is howling that the Republican-controlled body isn’t driving Texas fast-enough off a big-enough cliff. Unfortunately, the GOP budget response may not be much better. As...

Mapping the House

Usually, it's voters who decide who'll represent them, but once a decade legislators decided on the boundaries of their House districts. While necessary to align districts for population shifts, very often the drawing also serves to punish foes and reward allies. The...

Exercise In Irresponsibility

The Senate Finance Committee took the easy way out in crafting a budget that exceeds the taxpayers' means. Rather than prioritize spending within available revenues, the committee is choosing to tap the rainy day fund and use other one-time revenue sources to pay for...

Line Item Limbo

Commonsense, bi-partisan measures have been presented that would clarify the budget writing and reporting process, providing much needed transparency to a Texas budgetary format marked by a quagmire of confusion. Currently the ins and outs of the Texas Budget are...

No Spending Limits

Conservatives of all stripes agree on the need to limit the unchecked growth of government, and a year that has lawmakers tightening the state's belt anyway seems like a good time to champion such commonsense, pro-taxpayer legislation. Yet, House leaders are not....