Texas Budget

Start Now On A Conservative Budget

Start Now On A Conservative Budget

Raising taxes and seeking new revenue sources is off the table for Texas taxpayers and voters, so it also needs to be for lawmakers. Government efficiency, not creative financing, is what taxpayers have been, and will continue to be, demanding. Texans for Fiscal...

Budget gimmicks hide behind lack of transparency

In the coming months, state agencies will begin submitting their spending requests to the Legislative Budget Board as part of their Legislative Appropriations Requests for the 2014-2015 biennium budget.  These requests will include the use of general revenue dedicated...

Gambling Against Texas

Gambling Against Texas

Much has been made by the Texas House speaker and others about the alleged need for “new revenues” in state government. So some big-spenders just happen to have a ready-made solution, a magic money-making elixir: expanded gambling. And some conservatives are foolishly...

Perry’s Still Leading Texas

Perry’s Still Leading Texas

With Rick Perry bowing out of the presidential race this week, his detractors and the liberal pundits have predictably started writing his political obituary. That's mostly wishful thinking on their part. After all, Rick Perry has the opportunity to use the last-half...

Fix The Gimmicks

While the legislature balanced the Lone Star State’s ledger-book last year, they did so in part by taking a well-worn, if unsavory, path to get there. A top priority for the next legislature must be to correct the creative accounting and get rid of the gimmicks so...

Insiders Hate Limits On Government

This weekend saw bloated-bureaucracy shills on the attack against the need to limit government growth. In doing so, they demonstrate a casual disregard for both good public policy and the expressed will of the governed: Texas’ voters. The general idea is well...

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Time To End Tax-Funded Fluff Mail

Jeff Wentworth didn't come up with the idea of having taxpayers pay for political self-promotion mail-pieces. But his state senate office's mishandling of a "district newsletter" demonstrates why it's long past time for this perk to end. For decades, taxpayers have...

Legislators Should Have Yelled “Cut”

While other states have come to their senses about subsidizing Hollywood, Texas' lawmakers continue pumping taxpayer cash into a scheme of dubious value to Texans and our economy. The Wall Street Journal reports today that states are halting the subsidies as they find...

Suddenly Responsible?

Suddenly Responsible?

The San Antonio Express-News wants lawmakers to hold on to the state surplus revenue. The longer lawmakers hold it, the longer they will be tempted to spend it.