State

State Archive

Planning for Waste and Inefficiency?

A report issued by the Texas Education Agency says the premier pre-Kindergarten program in Texas is a waste of money, has failed to accomplish its goals, and has too little oversight. So what is the TEA's response to the Dallas Morning News? The program has met the...

Jump in Sales Tax Collections Shows Need for Refund Mechanism

Texas sales tax receipts increase of 9.5 percent in November over last year highlights the need for a mechanism whereby sales, property or other taxes would automatically be cut as money floods in.  Think of it - how many of the foreclosures engulfing Texas families...

Was Bush A Fiscal Conservative? Stop Laughing…

The media has had a field day with Gov. Rick Perry's recent assertion that George W. Bush was never a fiscal conservative. His comments were captured -- of course -- on YouTube. The real problem, of course, is that he was speaking absolute truth. George W. Bush may or...

Return to Sender

A few months ago we talked about the state spending a bucket-load of your money to buy a letter allegedly penned by Alamo defender David Crockett. Okay, allegedly is a stretch – most experts were sure it was a fake. After much deliberation, state officials have...

Don’t Buy Lies

Proposals to eliminate property taxes using the sales tax are gaining steam, but even among supporters there is a common misconception. Some believe the proposal would cause the sales tax to rise to confiscatory levels. Sure, liberals like to make that claim, and...

Bad Policy Ideas Never Die

Some things are just bad public policy, particularly when  they deal with eliminating competition. Maybe even especialyl when competition is limited. This is especially true of efforts to make all states levy sales taxes the same way. While we've written about this...

Tax Issue Hot? You Betcha

The Austin American-Statesman is reporting the obvious today: Texas voters want substantive reform to our tax system. Political consultant Todd Smith sums it up pretty well: "I never heard anybody say, 'I just got the right amount of property tax relief,' " he said....

Task Force Considers Elimination of the School Property Tax

The Legislature must begin to explore ways to phase out and ultimately eliminate the Maintenance & Operations (M&O) property tax. Toward that end, the Texas Conservative Coalition Research Institute launched a Property Tax Task Force three months ago to...