It is no secret that Big Tech and conservatives aren’t close friends these days. Responding to this concern, Republican House members last year assembled a Big Tech Censorship and Data Task Force to hold Big Tech accountable for anti-conservative bias and censorship. Now, however, Republicans in Congress are taking things too far by partnering with…
Category: Government
Texans Property Taxes are High Because Texas Politicians Like it That Way
States compete using various means to attract new businesses and residents to drive economic growth. For instance, CNBC ranks America’s Top States for Business with criteria such as Cost of Doing Business, Infrastructure, Business Friendliness, and Technology and Innovation. It also includes criteria that are more focused on residents, including Life, Health, and Inclusion and…
Texas Politicians and Citizens Enable Corporate Theft
It was not that long ago that property tax abatements were illegal in Texas because they wereconsidered to be theft. The market’s job was to create jobs and grow the economy. The government’s job was toensure a level playing field for all market participants through efficient civil and criminal justicesystems and limited regulation. Acknowledging the…
Protestant Resistance Theory
Romans 13 tells us to “be subject to the governing authorities.” Yet the leaders of the Protestant Reformation, from Luther and Calvin to Knox, Rutherford, Junius Brutus, and others, had a problem: the rulers they were supposed to be subject to were trying to, or actually did, murder them. To understand what the Bible taught…
Rule by Experts: 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 Under significant political pressure from the left and the right, the Texas Legislature last year let expire the Chapter 313 “economic development” program that allows…
Big Business Pushes for More Tax Breaks at Taxpayer Expense
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…
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…