This is an outside commentary submitted and published with the author’s permission. If you wish to submit a commentary to the Texas Scorecard, please submit your article to submission@empowertexans.com.

This is an outside commentary submitted and published with the author’s permission. If you wish to submit a commentary to the Texas Scorecard, please submit your article to submission@empowertexans.com.
“It is imperative that every state agency engage in a thorough review of each program and budget strategy and determine the value of each dollar spent.”
Unless the Legislature passes commonsense budgeting reforms, the state’s spending problems will only get worse.
Over 93% of Texas GOP delegates voted in favor of spending limitations plank, while nearly 95% of the delegates voted in favor of the two-thirds threshold.
It is revealing that Straus and his lieutenant are calling for more spending before the source of the problems has been diagnosed.
The most effective ways to deliver lasting property tax relief are reforms that limit the taxing, spending, and borrowing power of local governments. But Texans should not expect such protections to be enacted willingly—they must speak louder than the government...
Texas’ local debt epidemic continues to worsen at an alarming rate. In response, conservatives such as State Sen. Konni Burton (R-Colleyville) have pledged to push for debt-related reforms next legislative session. Texas has the second-highest per-capita local debt in...
Texans rank second highest in the nation for local debt liability – even after adjusting for our massive population growth.
Though much of House Speaker Joe Straus’ Texas Tribune interview this week centered on a whopper of a lie concerning the death of union dues legislation, it also featured a Jason Villalba-esque admission of guilt concerning the defeat of other bills. As previously...
Texas Republicans have been betrayed by House Speaker Joe Straus and his Appropriations Committee chairman, John Otto (R-Dayton). As you know, strengthening the state’s constitutional spending limit is supported by 94 percent of Republican primary voters and passed...