More and more Texas Republicans are letting legislators know they aren’t happy with state House leadership – or lack thereof – and they’re calling for a change. Denton County’s Republican Party is the latest to join the movement. Thursday night, DCRP unanimously...
As Texas House Republicans contemplate plans to amend the process by which the Republican nominee for Speaker is selected, Democrat members are gushing with praise for incumbent Joe Straus. Since 2009, House Speaker Joe Straus has held on to his post largely thanks to...
In an effort to encourage participation by community members in the local tax adoption process, Midland City Councilmembers are going above and beyond their legal obligations. Midland City Council meets twice a month at 10am at City Hall and, historically, have held...
Despite growing sales tax receipts and a more-than-healthy reserve fund of approximately $61 million, Midland County Commissioners are proposing a 9 percent increase on property taxes. If passed, the new rate would allow the county to collect more than $3.5 million in...
Typically, those seeking a win in Texas’ Republican primaries do their best to show voters how conservative they are. However, one state House hopeful is trying to win support by talking about all of the revenue government can generate via a nifty new tax on water...
Republican lawmakers across Texas who are failing to represent their conservative constituents in Austin continue to draw primary challengers. In House District 113 in east Dallas County, State Rep. Cindy Burkett (R-Sunnyvale) is being challenged by conservative...
One of the Texas Senate’s top tax champions rightly blasted the Texas House for killing property tax reform. In a passionate speech to his Senate colleagues, State Sen. Paul Bettencourt (R-Houston) criticized House lawmakers responsible for killing his reform that...
We’ll be releasing the 2017 Fiscal Responsibility Index this week. While the public release is set for 2pm on Wednesday, we thought we’d share the “top-lines” with you today. All votes included on the Index were announced in advance, and focus – as the name implies –...
There are many things a young child can learn while working with his father in the West Texas oil patch. For Midland native Kevin Sparks, it was a compilation of values that led him into political activism today – including a strong work ethic, fiscal responsibility,...
In a historic victory for grassroots conservatives in Montgomery County, the Republican Party Executive Committee, composed of precinct chairs, voted almost unanimously to support the placement of a non-binding referendum concerning toll roads on the 2018 primary...
Any thought that Gov. Abbott was going to go easy on the House, or back down, should be put to bed by the email his team put out today. It’s one thing to talk tough to the press, it’s something else to ask Texans to donate to a fight. No matter what one...
In the upcoming election to decide on shutting down Dallas’ failing bus agency, Texas’ most powerful teachers union is backing bus drivers over taxpayers. Texas State Teachers Association (TSTA) says it will campaign on behalf of Dallas County Schools in a...
After seriously considering a campaign for higher office, State Rep. Matt Shaheen (R–Plano) has announced that he will instead run for re-election to his current seat. Over the past few months Shaheen has flirted with a run for the Texas Senate to replace outgoing...
After effectively killing the vast majority of Gov. Greg Abbott’s special session agenda by delaying and diluting them to death, House Speaker Joe Straus adjourned the chamber sine die a full day early over the objections of dozens of lawmakers. In the video archive,...
In a landslide vote that sent shock waves through the political establishment, the Montgomery County Republican Party Executive Committee passed a resolution 34-11 condemning Texas House Speaker Joe Straus and calling for new leadership. Montgomery is the latest...
The special three-judge panel considering Texas redistricting, which long ago declared the state’s 35th Congressional District as a racial gerrymander, issued a ruling earlier this week that contains re-drawing deadlines. Early in the decade the panel declared...
Weeks have passed since an indictment against Houston Community College Trustee Chris Oliver was unsealed, and now another board member has personally hired a firm to further the ethics investigation in the district. Trustee Dave Wilson announced in a press conference...
In the aftermath of a failed special session, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has laid blame at the feet of the House leadership in general, and the speaker of the House in particular. During a radio interview, Abbott directed blame almost exclusively at House Speaker Joe...
After more than five hours of public comments – many from pro-illegal immigrant activists hurling defamatory accusations of racism and white supremacy – Texas’ fifth largest city declined to pile on a lawsuit to block the state’s new immigration enforcement law. By a...
