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…
Category: Government
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…
Makems and Takems
Do Takems Have the Upper Hand? The people of Sunderland in England have been building, or making, ships on the River Wear as far back as the 14th century. Since that time, their neighbors to the north in Newcastle upon Tyne have been taking the ships from Sunderland and using them to ship goods from the…
Texans’ Liberty is at Risk Through Corporate Cronyism
Economic development means a lot of things to different people. One fairly common definition comes from the International Economic Development Council: “Typically economic development can be described in terms of objectives. These are most commonly described as the creation of jobs and wealth, and the improvement of quality of life.” What it really is, though,…
Biblical Criticism of Civil and Church Rulers
Texas Scorecard, one of the most important organizations fighting for liberty in Texas, has several principles which guide their operation. One of those is don’t make it personal. Michael Sullivan, Texas Scorecard’s CEO, applied this principle to how citizens should approach politics in a recent commentary: We need to step back, for the sake of…
Will Texas Republicans Ever Fight for Limited Government?
Sometimes when I look around at what Republicans are doing, I don’t really know what to do with myself. Just think about how Republicans were in charge of the U.S. Senate and House and the White House for two years of the first two years of President Trump’s term. What did they accomplish? Not much….
Public Education: Making Over American Society in Its Own Image
On Tuesday, Reason.org reported on the latest U.S. Supreme Court decision: This morning, the Supreme Court issued its decision in Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue, striking down Montana’s state constitutional Blaine Amendment, which forbids state aid to “any church, school, academy, seminary, college, university, or other literary or scientific institution, controlled in whole or…