State
State Rep. Kronda Thimesch Calls Opponent ‘Liberal,’ But Appointed Him as Successor
According to records obtained by Texas Scorecard, Thimesch appointed her opponent Mitch Little as an emergency interim successor.
Democrats Push to Connect Texas to National Power Grid
Texas energy experts argue this would not solve any grid reliability issues.
Attorney General Paxton Issues Final Endorsements for Upcoming Primary Election
The list was accompanied by a message from the attorney general for Texas to “clean house.”
Decision Texas, Metroplex, State
State Rep. Glenn Rogers and Challenger Mike Olcott to Face Off in Republican Primary
This race will serve as a rematch after Rogers narrowly defeated Olcott in 2022.
State Archive
National Report Finds Texas Has Some of the Nation’s Highest Property Taxes
The Tax Foundation has released a new report with some bad news for Texas taxpayers that many probably already knew all too well. The report, which focuses on property taxes across the nation, found that Texas has the ninth highest property taxes of the 50 states as...
Merry Christmas: Hand over your money
Economist Stuart Greenfield opined in the subscription-based Quorum Report this week that while Texans are incredibly more generous individuals than others in the country (that part is right), our public policies keep the "state" from being as generous as the people...
Gov. Perry Readies a Christmas Present for College Students and an Accountability Lesson for Higher Ed
How do Texas college students know their tuition money and the share of taxes their parents paid that go towards higher education are actually used for expenditures that enhance the education they receive? Unfortunately, they don't because the state's higher...
Helping People
Does big government help people? The assumption made all too often is that the bigger the government, the more expansive the program, the more helpful it is. Indeed, we see that in the metrics used to justify continuing big government programs: how much money we...
Where There is a Hill, Is There a Way for Taxpayers?
The Texas House Local Government Ways and Means Committee chaired by State Rep. Fred Hill (R-Richardson) has released its interim report. News coverage of the report has centered on its opposition to appraisal caps, which was hardly surprising since Chairman Hill...
Advocates for Big Government: Paid for by… your taxes!
Roddy Stinson, a columnist at the San Antonio Express-News, has hit the nail on the head with a piece in today's paper. He correctly describes the response of local governments to the idea of slowing down the amount of money they can grab as "Weeping, wailing and...
Killing the Business Tax…
 When Texas lawmakers instituted the “gross margins†business tax, it is a safe bet they didn’t expect trail-lawyer-extraordinaire Mark Lanier to sue them over it. But that’s exactly what he’s planning on doing, according to today’s Houston Chronicle. ...
Return the Surplus
State Auditor: Higher Ed High on the Hog
Today, the Texas State Auditor released a detailed report on the number of full-time equivalent employees in state government. The central conclusion of the report is that, while state agencies have reduced their number of FTE's by 8.4 percent since 1997, higher...