State news in Texas

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Statewide Texas News

State Archive

Sunset Review Calls for Major Change Within TxDOT

You’ll often hear local elected officials blaming Austin for its transportation woes. And with the Texas Department of Transportation's plagued history of over-spending and under-performing, that's no surprise. Yet over the next decade, the agency is likely to double...

Bettencourt Wants To Stop “Passing The Trash”

The practice of “passing the trash,” or allowing teachers who may have engaged in sexual misconduct with a student to resign and teach in another district, has grown to be a major problem in Texas. When Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick released his top ten priority issues for...

Democrat Admits Straus Will Stymie Conservative Reforms

Last week, an Austin-area Democrat admitted that House Speaker Straus and his coalition of Democrats and liberal Republicans which control the chamber will be on “Operation Slowdown” to prevent conservative reforms from happening. In a downtown Austin speech to a tech...

Burton Files Major Bond Transparency Legislation

Though lawmakers have filed over six-hundred items of legislation since pre-filing began this week, few measures would be as impactful as State Sen. Konni Burton’s landmark debt transparency bill. Texans are currently saddled with the second highest local debt per...

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Stickland First to File Priority Legislation

Though lawmakers began filing legislation early Monday morning, it took until lunchtime Wednesday for one to file a bill concerning any of the five legislative priorities of the Republican Party of Texas. State Rep. Jonathan Stickland (R–Bedford) filed “constitutional...

Patrick Announces Top Priorities

As lawmakers were busy filing legislation for the 85th Session of the Texas Legislature, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick identified the areas for reform that he would like to see reformed when the body returns in January. “Starting in 2017, we will have a friend in the White...

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Draining the Swamp

Donald Trump ran and won on a simple message: make America great again by draining the DC swamp. Now he has to govern and do it. While I was publicly suspicious of his motivations through the spring, his unapologetic adherence to that simple message convinces me he’s...

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Austin Approves Worsened Traffic, Higher Taxes

Believing they might accomplish something regarding Austin’s growing traffic congestion, voters authorized $720 million in new debt for Austin on Tuesday. The spending spree will ostensibly go towards various transportation-related projects around the capital city....