In a mildly surprising move, Austin City Council voted to provide some much needed property tax relief to Austin homeowners; voting on a narrow 6-5 margin to increase the homestead exemption. While the vote is a (small) step in the right direction, homeowners are...
Against the recommendations from the Mobility Committee, the Austin City Council moved forward with Mayor Steve Adler’s ambitious $720 million transportation bond to bring before voters in November. If voters approve the measure, it will mark the most money Austin has...
It’s not a list you want to score high on, but unfortunately, Texas does. A new study by the Tax Foundation shows that the Lone Star State has the sixth highest property tax burden in the nation. Texas’ tax rate is set locally, with half to two-thirds of...
State agencies are being asked by the state’s top elected officials to cut spending requests heading into the next legislative session. In a letter signed Thursday by Gov. Greg Abbott, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, and House Speaker Joe Straus, the three leaders are requiring...
The Texas Legislature needs to take a proactive approach to protecting nonprofit donors, including churches, during the upcoming legislative session. While action has stalled in Austin, there have actually been some positive developments recently in Washington. The...
Recently the Center for Public Integrity (CPI) – a group with a history of support from multiple George Soros-backed foundations – came to the defense of Democrat Ann Ravel, former chairman of the Federal Election Commission in a piece published by The Daily Beast....
Texans may be shocked to learn city and county officials they elect at the polls are only partially responsible for transportation spending. In North Texas, forty-four officials and bureaucrats run the Regional Transportation Council (RTC), an unelected body that...
While Texas’ notoriously liberal capitol city recently banned innovative ridesharing services like Uber and Lyft, the Fort Worth City Council has adopted policies to accommodate customers and drivers. Austin and Houston have passed measures aimed at protecting the...
Another primary campaign season has come and gone and it was another in which the Texas Ethics Commission (TEC) willingly cooperated in its processes being used to support dirty campaign tactics. In Harris County, allies of State Rep. Wayne Smith (R–Baytown) used the...
Today, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton issued an opinion saying Fort Worth ISD’s transgender student guidelines are in violation of both Chapter 11 and 26 of the Texas Education Code. The opinion comes in response to Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick’s inquiry on whether the...
Upon being indicted and charged with conspiring to circumvent the Texas Open Meetings Act, Montgomery County Commissioners Court Judge Craig Doyal has been suspended from office without pay by the State Commission on Judicial Conduct (SCJC). Doyal and County...
Following a letter of support from Gov. Greg Abbott urging the renewal of U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) controversial “287(g)” immigration program, Harris County Sheriff Ron Hickman renewed the program’s contract a week before its expiration. The...
After initially defying calls for his resignation, one long-time commissioner on the Texas Ethics Commission resigned late Friday. The resignation comes as evidence mounts that he may have been violating state lobby laws while serving on the commission. Tom Harrison,...
After an investigation into the communications that led to the creation of a $280 million road bond, three members of the Montgomery County Commissioners Court have been indicted by a grand jury and booked into the county jail. County Judge Craig Doyal, and...
Despite enrollment declining four years in a row, Austin ISD taxpayers are staring down the barrel of paying even more in property taxes. On Monday, the Austin ISD School Board approved their 2016-2017 budget — the largest in their history — at a staggering $1.3...
Proving that every vote matters, voters in the United Kingdom voted to exit the failed experiment of the European Union. This vote for British self-governance deals a blow to the bloated Brussels bureaucracy that has failed to reform despite years of growing...
Taxpayers could be on the hook for over $42 million to fund a major overhaul of the Midland Convention Center. City council members will tentatively vote on the issue July 12th. The proposal before the council would direct at least $42.3 million from revenues...
In the month following Uber and Lyft’s cessation of operations within the City of Austin, DWI arrests are up 7.5% in the capital city — according new data from the Austin Police Department. Now, with a vacuum of transportation options resulting from onerous...
Local news outlets continue to publish inaccuracies to defend TexRail, Tarrant County’s controversial $1 billion train proposal. Their false claims are disproved by the government’s own study that found the tax-funded boondoggle will have no transportation or...
The battle between local governments and the Texas Legislature spilled into the courtroom Tuesday after State Rep. Matt Rinaldi (R-Irving) and nineteen other Republican lawmakers filed an amicus curiae brief in a high profile lawsuit challenging Laredo’s bag ban...
