Last Thursday I spent 11 hours at the Texas state Capitol in Austin. The occasion for all the fun was a hearing by the House Ways and Means committee on issues related to property taxes. It was pretty amazing to watch the proceedings. One of the biggest problems we have in America today is that…
Category: Government
Replacing Big Tech with Big Government Won’t Benefit Consumers
This commentary originally appeared in the Dallas Morning News. In his farewell address delivered just over 60 years ago, President Dwight Eisenhower warned Americans to “guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.” Critics of…
Opportunity to Tell the Texas Legislature to Abolish Chapter 313
It was not that long ago that property tax abatements were illegal in Texas because they were considered to be theft. This historic and biblical perspective was embedded in the Texas Constitution. Acknowledging the ethical and economic problems with the government giving taxpayer money to individuals or businesses, the Constitution contains what is known as the Gift…
Chapter 312 and 313 Tax Abatements are Theft
Property tax abatements under Chapters 312 and 313 of the Texas Tax Code allow counties, cities, school districts, and special purpose districts to reduce the amount of taxes paid by favored businesses that locate or expand within their geographic boundaries. They are used by renewable energy developers in concert with state and federal subsidies to turn…
Two Approaches to Economic Development
“The conventional approach to economic development … is based on a technocratic illusion: the belief that poverty is a purely technical problem amendable to … technical solutions.” ~William Easterly, The Tyranny of Experts There are two different approaches to economic development, according to Dr. William Easterly. One is technocratic or authoritarian development, a…
Texans are Ready to End Corporate Property Tax Breaks
Following his recent speech to the Texas Oil and Gas Association, Rep. Dade Phelan, speaker of the Texas House of Representatives, tweeted that the Texas Legislature is “developing a program to replace Chapter 313,” the soon to be defunct provision in the Texas Tax Code that allows school districts to give property tax breaks to…
Texans are still waiting for property tax relief
Toward the end of the 86th Texas Legislature’s regular session in 2019, some of Texas’ leading politicians couldn’t stop congratulating themselves on the success of their efforts to provide property tax relief. “We are making tremendous strides to provide long-awaited relief to Texas homeowners and businesses,” said Gov. Greg Abbott in a press release. “Our…
What Was Ted Cruz Thinking?
I’ve been a fan of Ted Cruz long before he ran for office. We first met about 2008 when he was an attorney in private practice. He would give occasional luncheon speeches for my employer, the Texas Public Policy Foundation. I was amazed. As I told my wife at the time, every word that came…
The Houston Chronicle Takes on Chapter 313
I don’t usually find a lot worth quoting in the mainstream media. But the Houston Chronicle as been on a bit of a rampage of late against corporate welfare in the form of Chapter 313 property tax abatements offered by Texas school districts to big businesses–especially renewable energy wind and solar farms: “As millions of Texans…
Shutdowns Were a Disaster
by John Hinderaker The Wall Street Journal notes that, as the coronavirus disappears in the rear-view mirror, two Americas are emerging: The unemployment rate in April nationwide was 6.1%, but this obscures giant variations in the states. With some exceptions, those run by Democrats such as California (8.3%) and New York (8.2%) continued to suffer significantly higher…