Welcome to Texas PolicyCast, a weekly audio magazine exploring the issues facing the Lone Star State. Each edition features conversations with policy experts, issue analysts, elected officials and other opinion leaders. The program is hosted by the Foundation's Director of Media and Government Relations, David Guenthner.
To listen now, simply click "play" on the audio player, or on the title of the edition. Or, save the mp3 to your desktop by right-clicking on the title or the link-to and choose "save as." Free e-mail notifications of new editions are available through our Texas Public Policy News service.
With the regular session of the 81st Texas Legislature now concluded, it's time to look back at the session and assess what our legislators accomplished. This week, we look at health care with The Honorable Arlene Wohlgemuth, former state representative and currently a Visiting Research Fellow at the Texas Public Policy Foundation.
To listen now, simply click on the title of the edition. Or, save the mp3 to your desktop by right-clicking on the title or the link-to and choose "save as."
Texas PolicyCast
With the regular session of the 81st Texas Legislature now concluded, it's time to look back at the session and assess what our legislators accomplished. This week, we look at health care with The Honorable Arlene Wohlgemuth, former state representative and currently a Visiting Research Fellow at the Texas Public Policy Foundation.
With the regular session of the 81st Texas Legislature now concluded, it's time to look back at the session and assess what our legislators accomplished. This week, we look at education policy with TPPF education policy analyst Brooke Terry.
The summer is getting hotter, and so is the congressional debate over regulating carbon emissions. U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is determined to have a vote before the July 4th congressional recess on a proposal by Congressmen Henry Waxman and Edward Markey that would enact a cap-and-trade system for carbon emissions. To learn more about this issue and how such a system would punish the Texas economy, we caught up this week with Kathleen Hartnett White, Distinguished Senior Fellow in Residence and Director of the Anne & Tobin Armstrong Center for Energy & the Environment at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, and former chair of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.
With the regular session of the 81st Texas Legislature now concluded, it's time to look back at the session and assess what our legislators accomplished. This week, we look at higher education with TPPF higher education policy analyst Elizabeth Young.
On Monday, the 81st Texas Legislature adjourned its regular session. Over the next several weeks, we'll review the good, bad, and ugly of the session from the Foundation's point of view. This week, we get the perspective of Bill Peacock, Director of the Center for Economic Freedom at the Texas Public Policy Foundation.
Issues of taxes and spending are the most important issues dealt with when the Texas Legislature is in session -- not only because they're so important to people's lives, but because the state budget is the only piece of legislation the Legislature is required to pass during a regular session. As the 81st Texas Legislature moves toward its final weekend, we take stock of the 2010-11 state budget and other fiscal issues with The Honorable Talmadge Heflin, Director of the Center for Fiscal Policy at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, and former chairman of the Texas House Appropriations Committee.
The cost of electricity is a big piece of both business and family budgets. Therefore, it's not too surprising that issues involving electricity see a lot of activity in the Texas Legislature. Two years ago, the debate was over ending Texas' successful transition to electric competition and re-regulating the market. But this year, the discussions have taken a different tack - and one that could prove very costly to Texas ratepayers. Bill Peacock, Director of the Center for Economic Freedom at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, gives us the lowdown.
Mental illness poses a serious challenge for the criminal justice system. Texas in particular has a significant percentage of offenders with mental illness throughout its prison, probation, and parole systems. Fortunately, there are policies and practices that Texas can adopt which improve outcomes for mentally ill offenders, enhance public safety, and save taxpayers money. To learn more, we caught up this week with Marc Levin, Director of the Center for Effective Justice at the Texas Public Policy Foundation.
Today, Texas has a severe shortage of quality teachers in several subject areas - including math, science, bilingual, and special education. So why does Texas continue to put regulatory hurdles in the way of certified teachers from other states who have moved here and want to teach here? Thankfully, two bills advancing through the Texas Legislature - House Bill 4152 and Senate Bill 2206 - would streamline the process for teachers certified in these subjects by another state to begin teaching our Texas student. Brooke Terry, TPPF education policy analyst, came up with this concept and explains why it is important on this week's episode.
Two weeks ago, Texas Public Policy Foundation higher education policy analyst Elizabeth Young shared her findings on the surge in operating costs at Texas public universities. But what can we do about them? In this week's episodes, she shares the Foundation's recommendations for higher education reforms that will improve both its cost and quality.
Two years ago, the scandal at the Texas Youth Commission pushed criminal justice issues into the legislative spotlight. While those issues are not as prominent this session, that doesn't mean there isn't any action there. The juvenile corrections system is under sunset review, and there are a number of proposals being considered that would promote alternatives to prison for low-level offenders. This week, we bring you a conversation with The Honorable Jim McReynolds of Lufkin, chairman of the House Corrections Committee, to get his perspective on these issues.
With tuition at Texas public universities surging over the last several years, it's natural that the issue who attract considerable attention from parents, students, and legislators. But who is paying attention to the underlying problem of university operating costs? In this week's episode, Elizabeth Young, higher education policy analyst at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, goes through some of the major cost drivers in Texas higher education and lists some of the free-market policy solutions that would bring these costs back in line.
The conventional wisdom out of Washington, D.C. is that the way to get our economy back in gear is to increase government spending. But a report released by the Texas Public Policy Foundation earlier this week estimates that the growth in government due to the recently passed federal stimulus package will wind up cutting Texas business output and costing our state between 130,000 and 170,000 additional jobs. TPPF Senior Fellow Donna Arduin - partner in Arduin Laffer and Moore Econometrics, which the Foundation commissioned to produce the report - walks us through the findings on this week's episode.
Because of the substantial burden imposed by property taxes, the lack of a rational link between school property taxes and educational services, and the constitutional complexities surrounding the school property tax, many believe it is time to eliminate property taxes altogether. One of them is State Rep. Phil King of Weatherford, who has filed House Joint Resolution 97, which would abolish the maintenance and operations school property tax by 2014 and force the legislature to find a fairer method to pay for public schools. He discusses his proposal with us this week.
This week marked the halfway point of the 81st Texas Legislature, and after a slow start, the pace of activity around the Capitol has noticeably quickened. On Wednesday, the House Committee on Land and Resource Management conducted a hearing on several bills related to eminent domain. On this episode, we get a report on the hearing and an update on the issue from Bill Peacock, Director of the Center for Economic Freedom at the Texas Public Policy Foundation.
The federal stimulus package signed into law last month has become the biggest issue facing the 81st Texas Legislature. In a relatively short period of time, legislators need to figure out what's exactly in the package for Texas, where the money is intended to go and for what purposes, whether accepting particular funds would require changes in Texas law, and if so, whether the costs and other consequences of those changes outweigh the benefit to the state of accepting those funds. The Texas House of Representatives' point person on the stimulus package is Rep. Myra Crownover of Lake Dallas, who chairs the House Appropriations subcommittee on the federal stimulus. We caught up with her this week to get an update.
On Tuesday, President Barack Obama addressed the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. During his remarks, he embraced several key education reform initiatives, including teacher merit pay. "Too many supporters of my party have resisted the idea of rewarding excellence in teaching with extra pay, even though we know it can make a difference in the classroom," Obama said. This concept has long been a top priority on the Texas Public Policy Foundation's education agenda, and this week, we talk with TPPF education policy analyst Brooke Terry to get an update on the issue.
Texans are beginning to feel the pain of the national recession and a cooling state economy. The Federal Reserve recently updated its forecast and said Texas could lose nearly 300,000 jobs this year, with an unemployment rate upwards of 8 percent. Perfect time for a massive tax increase? Sadly, several of our state legislators seem to think so. We look at the push for new regional transportation taxes with Justin Keener, vice president of policy and communications at the Texas Public Policy Foundation.
Last week, Rep. Ken Paxton of McKinney and Sen. Dan Patrick of Houston held a press conference to announce the filing of House Bill 994 and Senate Bill 928, both of which seek to tighten the state's expenditure limit. We caught up with Rep. Paxton after the event to get his perspective on the legislation.
More than three years have passed since the U.S. Supreme Court handled down its infamous Kelo decision that eviscerated the public use clause of the 5th Amendment. Under Kelo, governments can now take private property for just about any reason they please, as long as they have a plan. On this week's episode, we talk with Bill Peacock, Director of the Foundation's Center for Economic Freedom, to learn what Texas needs to do to finally address the problems raised by the Kelo ruling and protect Texans' property rights.
On Wednesday, the Texas Public Policy Foundation joined with several other research, business and taxpayer organizations to issue "Blueprint for an Effective State Budget," a statement intended to guide legislators through the difficult budget decisions they will have to make during the next few months. This week, we discuss the blueprint with one of its primary architects, The Honorable Talmadge Heflin, Director of the Center for Fiscal Policy at the Texas Public Policy Foundation and former Chairman of the Texas House Appropriations Committee.
Could California emissions standards be on their way to Texas? A recent decision by the Obama Administration could open the door to states being allowed to set their own vehicle emissions and fuel economy standards that are even more stringent than current federal law. What would this mean for Texas? We ask Kathleen Hartnett White, Director of the Center for Natural Resources at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, and the former chair of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.
Last December, U.S. News and World Report released its 2009 ranking of America's best public high schools. Coming in at #19 was IDEA College Preparatory, a charter school in Donna, Texas. Established in 1998, the IDEA Public Schools now serve more than 4,000 students in 10 campuses across the Rio Grande Valley, with even more ambitious plans for the future. Tom Torkelson, the CEO and Founder of IDEA Public Schools, spoke at our 7th Annual Policy Orientation for the Texas Legislature, and he shares his remarkable story on this week's Texas PolicyCast.
This week, we bring you the conclusion of our two-part interview with Texas Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst previewing the 81st Texas Legislature. In this episode, we turn our attention to education, electricity, and his priorities for the session.
The regular session of the 81st Texas Legislature is now underway in Austin. This week and next, we will bring you a two-part conversation with Texas Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst on the session's key issues. In this episode, we focus on the state's budget and finances.
This week, we are pleased to bring you a roundtable discussion featuring the policy team at the Texas Public Policy Foundation looking back at 2008 and previewing the 81st Texas Legislature.
Texas has set the national standard for government financial transparency, thanks in large part to the leadership of the state's Comptroller of Public Accounts, Susan Combs. Her agency's "Where the Money Goes" website lets you see how state agencies are spending your money - right down to the pencil. And last week, Combs unveiled Open Book Texas, an initiative that will provide an even more comprehensive view of government spending, and she discusses it with us on this episode.
Occupational licensing matters a lot to the vitality of a state's economy. While some licenses play a role to protect public health and safety, others serve only to expand government, limit market competition, and enrich those who happen to be on the right side of the regulations. Late last year, Texas House Speaker Tom Craddick assigned the House Government Reform Committee to review the state's occupational licensing and regulations with an eye toward streamlining unnecessary regulations and pruning unnecessary licenses. This week, we get a preview of the committee's interim report with its chairman, state Rep. Bill Callegari from Katy.
In August, the Texas Public Policy Foundation published a report that found that tens of thousands of school children were on waiting lists to attend Texas charter schools. Last month, the State Board of Education granted the final charters it is allowed under current law. What does the future hold for charter schools and these children? For that, we talk with Brooke Terry, education policy analyst at the Texas Public Policy Foundation.
On Monday, the Texas Public Policy Foundation hosted "Monopolies or Markets? How to Power Economic Growth," a Policy Primer on electric deregulation. During his keynote remarks, House Regulated Industries Committee Chairman Phil King discussed Texas' successful transition to a competitive electric market and what should be done to keep Texas on the path toward energy independence. We caught up with Chairman King following the event for this conversation on the Texas electric market.
While the 81st Texas Legislature doesn't convene for another two months, the 2010-2011 Texas state budget process begins in earnest this week. Article VIII, Section 22 of the Texas Constitution limits the growth in state spending to the growth of the state's economy, and the Texas Legislative Budget Board will meet on Friday to hear five different estimates of Texas' future economic growth. We take a closer look at the state expenditure limit with James Quintero, Fiscal Policy Analyst at the Texas Public Policy Foundation.
With a new president taking office in January, could 2009 be the year that the environmental movement gets its climate change legislation? Kathleen Hartnett White, Director of the Foundation's Center for Natural Resources and former Chair of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, has written a new commentary in which she lists six reasons why that might not be the case. She goes through them with us on this week's PolicyCast.
Texas' efforts to make it the nation's leading wind energy state have come at a cost - at least $60 billion between now and 2025 - that will be borne by consumers and taxpayers. This according to "Texas Wind Energy: Past, Present, and Future," a report released this week by the Texas Public Policy Foundation. This week, we bring you a conversation with the report's author, TPPF economic freedom and natural resources policy analyst Drew Thornley.
The Texas Youth Commission and the Texas Juvenile Probation Commission are among the state agencies currently going through the Sunset Advisory Commission review process. This week, Marc Levin, Director of the Foundation's Center for Effective Justice, published a Policy Perspective that recommends that these agencies' performance measures be enhanced to focus more on results than volume. Marc discusses his report with us this week.
Last spring, the state of Texas finally reached an agreement in principle to settle a 14-year-old class-action lawsuit, titled Frew v. Hawkins, over allegations that the state's Medicaid program had not done enough to provide preventive and specialty medical services to children. The agreement provided the Medicaid program with an additional $707 million during the current two-year budget. Most of that money went toward increasing provider reimbursement rates, but $150 million was set aside for "strategic medical and dental initiatives." Texas Health and Human Services Commissioner Albert Hawkins created an advisory committee to make recommendations regarding those funds, and TPPF health care policy analyst Kalese Hammonds is a member of that panel. This week, Kalese shares with us what that committee is considering and what effect the Frew settlement may have on future state budgets.
The problems afflicting our public schools are well chronicled - dropout rates are staggering and much higher than officially reported, and of the students who do get their diplomas, a growing number of them require remedial education before they can start their college coursework. Unfortunately, there's another problem you can add to the list - financial mismanagement of taxpayer dollars. The latest and highest profile example is Dallas ISD, which is struggling to remedy a $64 million cost overrun from last year and an $84 million budget deficit this year - both of which were just discovered. To talk about the situation and what needs to be done to fix it and prevent it from happening in other districts, we have James Quintero and The Honorable Talmadge Heflin from the Center for Fiscal Policy at the Texas Public Policy Foundation.
This week, the Texas Public Policy Foundation published "Influential Issues," a series of five papers designed to address topics that are driving today's public debate on Texas policy concerns. One of the papers is on the Texas economy, and we discuss its findings this week with one of its co-authors, the Honorable Talmadge Heflin, Director of the Center for Fiscal Policy at the Texas Public Policy Foundation and former Chairman of the House Appropriations Committee.
This week, Congress is considering a financial system bailout that would give the U.S. Treasury Secretary the authority to buy up to $700 billion of bad debt off of Wall Street balance sheets. But will this plan shore up our wobbly economy and calm our turbulent credit markets, or will it kill the value of the dollar and set off a vicious inflation spiral? And even more importantly, what effect will this plan have on our freedom? To probe these questions, we bring you a conversation with Jeff Sandefer, president of Sandefer Capital Partners, teacher at the Acton School Business, and a member of the Texas Public Policy Foundation board of directors.
Teacher incentive pay programs in Texas school districts have produced higher test scores, higher state accountability rankings, improved teacher morale, and less teacher turnover. This according to a new report released this week by the Texas Public Policy Foundation, with generous support from the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation. On this week's Texas PolicyCast, we talk with the report's author, Texas Public Policy Foundation education policy analyst Brooke Terry, about the history and role of incentive pay in Texas public schools.
Energy independence is one of the top issues in this year's presidential campaign. But while the conventional wisdom is that it is a distant goal, could the solution already be literally under our feet? A new report from the Texas Public Policy Foundation concludes that it is, but the environmental movement is preventing us from getting at it. This week, we talk about that report, "Environmental Constraints on U.S. Oil Supply," with its author, Kathleen Hartnett White, Director of the Center for Natural Resources at the Texas Public Policy Foundation and former Chair of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.
One of the major issues in this year's presidential campaign is energy independence, with both major party candidates looking for wind to play a greater role in meeting America's electricity needs. Texas is and will continue to be the national leader in wind energy, but what have we learned so far? Later this month, the Foundation will release a report, "Texas Wind Energy: Past, Present, and Future," that provides a comprehensive look at the Texas experience with wind energy. Discussing his research with us this week is the paper's author, Drew Thornley, natural resources policy analyst at the Texas Public Policy Foundation.
Last year, charter schools provided an alternate educational setting for more than 110,000 Texas school students. Unfortunately, at least 16,810 more were on a waiting list to attend a Texas charter school, according to a new report released last week by the Texas Public Policy Foundation. On this episode, we discuss the findings with the report's author, Foundation education policy analyst Brooke Terry.
Rising food and energy costs are hitting everyone hard right now. But while consumers and businesses are tightening their belts, government agencies are preparing to ease their pain by digging even deeper into your wallets. A harbinger of the battles to come is the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, which intends to ask the Legislature for a 19% budget increase for the next two years. This week, we go inside the TDCJ budget request with Marc Levin, Director of the Center for Effective Justice at the Texas Public Policy Foundation.
Every 12 years, Texas state agencies go through a sunset review process to determine whether those agencies are still needed, and if so, whether their functions and structures should change. One of the agencies currently up for review is the Texas Department of Insurance. Next month, the Sunset Advisory Commission will vote on its recommended changes to TDI. Next Monday, the Texas Public Policy Foundation will issue a report with its recommended changes to TDI. Joining us to preview the report are its authors, Bill Peacock, Director of the Foundation's Center for Economic Freedom, and Drew Thornley, Economic Freedom Policy Analyst.
This month marks the third anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, one of the most devastating natural disasters in American history. In the aftermath of the storm, the Mercatus Center at George Mason University launched a five-year project to follow the long-term redevelopment of the Gulf Coast after Katrina. Last week, Mercatus published a compilation of its research to date, entitled "Is the Gulf Coast Open for Business?" Joining us this week to discuss the findings is Daniel Rothschild, Associate Director of Mercatus' Global Prosperity Initiative.
The late Senator Barry Goldwater is one of the iconic figures in the conservative movement. A new book, Pure Goldwater, looks at the senator's life, career, and beliefs through a new prism - that of his own writings. Barry Goldwater, Jr., the senator's son and himself a former seven-term congressman from California, worked with John Dean to organize the senator's journals and letters into a compelling personal portrait. This week, we present a conversation with Barry Goldwater, Jr., recorded shortly before his keynote remarks at the Americans for Prosperity/Right Online "Defending the American Dream Summit" in Austin.
Nationally syndicated columnist Robert Novak is widely regarded as the dean of conservative journalists, having covered and commented on national politics for more than half a century. He was in Austin last weekend for the Americans for Prosperity/Right Online "Defending the American Dream Summit," and we caught up with him to get his thoughts on the state of the conservative movement and the current presidential campaign.
Last week, the Texas Public Policy Foundation and the Mercatus Center at George Mason University co-hosted Capital Campus Texas, a two-day economics education program for legislative and executive branch staff. This week, we bring you a conversation with the event's keynote speaker, Amity Shlaes, Senior Fellow in Economic History at the Council on Foreign Relations, columnist for Bloomberg News, and author of The Forgotten Man, the recent best-selling book on the policies and economics of the Great Depression and the New Deal.
One of the Texas Public Policy Foundation's major issues in recent years has been increasing the public's access to information on state and local government spending. To that end, the Foundation has launched TexasBudgetSource.com, a new website that will provide a one-stop resource for information on state and local government budgets and spending. This week, we talk with The Honorable Talmadge Heflin, Director of the Foundation's Center for Fiscal Policy and a former chairman of the Texas House Appropriations Committee, about the importance of spending transparency and about what people can find at www.TexasBudgetSource.com.
In May, the Texas Public Policy Foundation released the report, "A History of Lawsuit Reform in Texas," authored by TPPF Senior Fellow, The Honorable Joe Nixon. Besides being an accomplished litigator, Nixon served six terms in the Texas House of Representatives, the last two as Chairman of its Civil Practices Committee. In the second part of our interview, we talk about the lawsuit reforms passed during the 2003 legislative session and what those have meant to Texas in the years since.
Last month, the Texas Public Policy Foundation released the report, "A History of Lawsuit Reform in Texas," authored by TPPF Senior Fellow, The Honorable Joe Nixon. Besides being an accomplished litigator, Nixon served six terms in the Texas House of Representatives, the last two as Chairman of its Civil Practices Committee. In this two-part interview, we look at the evolution of Texas' civil justice system and the actions taken in recent years to strike a fairer balance between plaintiffs and defendants.
The recent surge in energy and food prices has put a strain on government budgets. With preparations underway for the 2010-11 state budget, the challenge is going to be how to address those higher operating costs without putting an even greater burden on taxpayers who are already struggling to keep gas in their vehicles and food on their plates. This week, we take a look at one area, the prison system, and ask Marc Levin, Director of the Center for Effective Justice at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, how we can keep the public safe while holding the line on state spending.
Summer is here, and the temperature isn't the only thing that has many Texans hot under the collar. Electric prices have risen sharply in recent months, and four of the state's electric retailers have gone belly-up - unable to live up to the terms of their service contracts and forcing the Public Utility Commission to shift their customers to the "provider of last resort"...at much higher rates. To find out what's going on and what can be done, we visit this week with Bill Peacock, Director of the Center for Economic Freedom and the author of the Foundation's recent report, "The Texas Electric Meter: Measuring the Effects of Electric Deregulation."
The Tax Foundation is a non-partisan tax research group in Washington, DC. It produces a substantial amount of research on federal and state taxes, including an annual State Business Tax Climate Index. Its president, Scott Hodge, was one of the panelists at our May 29th Policy Primer, Keys to State Competitiveness, the audio of which is available in the multimedia section of our website, www.TexasPolicy.com. In this week's Texas PolicyCast, we get Hodge's thoughts on that topic, as well as the Texas business tax climate in general.
With food prices skyrocketing in recent months, Gov. Rick Perry and Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison have proposed separate measures that would roll back America's ill-advised ethanol policies. On this week's Texas PolicyCast, Kathleen Hartnett White, former Chair of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality and Director of the Foundation's Center for Natural Resources, details the folly of attempting to turn food into fuel.
Texas consumers will soon see two modest reductions in their telecommunications bills. The Telecommunications Infrastructure Fund tax will be abolished later this year, while the Public Utility Commission recently approved a $144 million per year reduction in Universal Service Fund fees. But even with these positive steps, Texas consumers will still pay some of the highest telecom taxes in the country. This week, Bill Peacock, Director of the Foundation's Center for Economic Freedom, identifies the next exorbitant telecom tax that needs to be addressed -- the municipal franchise fee.
You've heard the statistic that Texas has the highest percentage of uninsured residents in the country. A lot of that is because Texas requires that a large number of expensive benefits be included in health insurance policies sold here. In this week's Texas PolicyCast, health care policy analyst Kalese Hammonds spells out how much those mandates are driving the cost of your health insurance, and one idea for how to give consumers more choices and cheaper health insurance.
I'm sure you've had the thought. "The wind blows a lot around here. We don't have to pay anything for it, as opposed to coal or natural gas. What if we were able to a big chunk of our energy from wind turbines instead of fossil fuels?" Is that feasible? Is it even possible? We explore such questions this week with Drew Thornley, natural resources policy analyst at the Texas Public Policy Foundation and author of a soon-to-be-released paper on wind energy in Texas.
The more things change, the more things stay the same - especially when it comes to public education. Even though the expectations for today's students are rapidly changing, public schools use a 1920s-era model for paying teachers. In this week's episode, we talk to Foundation education policy analyst Brooke Terry about her new paper, "Bringing Teacher Compensation into the 21st Century," which makes the case for tying teacher pay to teacher quality.
Is it time to do away with the Texas Youth Commission? Senate Criminal Justice Chairman John Whitmire believes so. Almost a year into the restructuring effort at TYC, Whitmire now thinks it makes more sense to do away with that entity and create a new model for juvenile justice in Texas. Marc Levin, Director of the Foundation's Center for Effective Justice, has been a leader in Texas' juvenile justice reforms, and this week, he brings us up to speed on the current discussions.
Proponents of a complete government takeover of health care have been hostile to the notion of consumer-driven health care and the emergence of Health Savings Accounts. Now it seems that they are not content to merely argue their case against market-based reforms and individual ownership and control of health insurance and health care, but they also intend to erect barriers that would introduce unnecessary red tape and regulation to tamp out any enthusiasm for HSAs and health care flexibility. To talk about this new attack against HSAs, we have Mary Katherine Stout, Vice President of Policy and Director of the Center for Health Care Policy at the Texas Public Policy Foundation.
A coastal state at even greater risk for hurricanes than Texas is Florida. During 2005, when Hurricane Rita ripped apart the Texas Golden Triangle, almost every part of Florida was affected by one of four hurricanes. As the former chairman of the Florida House Insurance Committee, State Rep. Dennis Ross has been a staunch advocate of free-market solutions to his state's windstorm crisis. He sat down for this interview following his presentation at the Foundation's 6th Annual Policy Orientation for the Texas Legislature.
From mandates on health insurance coverage to rate bands that govern the price of insurance, state legislatures and state insurance regulators wield considerable power in the marketplace. What is the impact of government regulation on health insurance and what does it mean for affordability and accessibility of coverage? We explore these questions with J.P. Wieske, director of state affairs for the Council for Affordable Health Insurance and chair of the Health Reform Working Group of the American Legislative Exchange Council.
On January 1, 2007, Texas completed its transition to retail electric competition. Critics of deregulation were vocal during the last legislative session, declaring it to be a failure and barely falling short in their efforts to re-regulate the Texas electric market. But with a full year of competition under our belt, how is competition working out? This week, the Foundation debuted its new project, the Texas Electric Meter, a statistical report that will monitor the health and vitality of the Texas competitive electric market. Bill Peacock, Director of the Foundation's Center for Economic Freedom, compiled the report, and he shares his findings with us this week.
Texas is in an enviable position in that we have more than enough mineral resources to meet our energy needs. But environmental activists are tightening the screws on Texas to keep those resources in the ground and out of our power lines. How should Texas balance our growing energy needs with environmental concerns? Dr. Sterling Burnett, a Senior Fellow for the National Center for Policy Analysis and for the Texas Public Policy Foundation, recently wrote a paper entitled, "Power for the Future: The Debate Over New Coal-Fired Power Plants in Texas," and he is our guest on this week's Texas PolicyCast.
Last week, Texas Lieutenant Governor David Dewhurst shared his thoughts on the fiscal issues that the Senate will be studying this year. In the second part of our conversation, he lays out some of his other priorities for this legislative interim.
Last December, Speaker Tom Craddick issued his interim study assignments for committees in the Texas House. In January, Lieutenant Governor David Dewhurst did likewise for the Texas Senate. This week, we share the first part of our interview with Gov. Dewhurst on the Senate's agenda for this year.
Whether measured by the rising cost of tuition or the state's appropriation for higher education, it seems that Texas colleges and universities require increasingly more money. What is behind these skyrocketing costs and are we getting what we're paying for? We consider these questions with Dr. Richard Vedder, Distinguished Professor of Economics at Ohio University, Director of the Center for College Affordability and Productivity, and a Senior Research Fellow at the Texas Public Policy Foundation. Dr. Vedder's paper, "Cutting the Cost of College," was released by the Foundation last June and is available in the Publications section of the Foundation's website, www.TexasPolicy.com.
While Texas was one of the first states to respond to the U.S. Supreme Court's Kelo decision, allowing governments to condemn property for economic development purposes, it has yet to finish the job of protecting property owners. Attempts to protect Texans' property rights last year fell short because of disagreements over blight designations and compensation issues. Discussing those issues with us on this week's edition is Glenn Sodd, a Corsicana attorney whose primary practice is eminent domain litigation throughout the state of Texas.
The conventional wisdom has been that affluent neighborhoods with well-educated parents also have outstanding public schools. But a new book casts substantial doubt on that proposition. The book, "Not as Good as You Think: Why the Middle Class Needs School Choice," was produced by the Pacific Research Institute for Public Policy and can be downloaded from its website, www.PacificResearch.org. Here to talk about it is one of its authors, Dr. Vicki Murray, a Senior Policy Fellow for Education Studies at the Pacific Research Institute.
While the American health care system is not a single-payer system as in Canada or the United Kingdom, government regulation in the health care industry is substantial. But do these federal and state regulations on the practice of medicine and the business of health care protect patients and consumers, or hurt innovation and competition in the marketplace? We pose these questions to David Hyman, professor of law and medicine at the University of Illinois and adjunct scholar at the Cato Institute.
Texas is one of many states locked in fierce debates over how to meet its future energy needs. In the last decade, Texas has shifted more towards natural gas as a fuel source for electric generation, but as natural gas prices have soared, so have electricity prices. Recent proposals to diversify our fuel sources by building new coal-fired power plants have met with spirited opposition over air quality and public health concerns. This week, we discuss the present and future of Texas air quality with Joel Schwartz, environmental consultant and a Visiting Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.
The Texas Public Policy Foundation has been a consistent and strong advocate for government transparency, especially when it comes to our tax dollars. The Foundation played an important role in the development of several spending transparency proposals during the 80th Texas Legislature. On the national level, one of the leading champions for fiscal transparency has been Americans for Tax Reform. ATR president Grover Norquist spoke at the 6th Annual Policy Orientation for the Texas Legislature, and we caught up with him for an update on the progress around the country.
One of the biggest political stories of 2006 was the election of an African-American Democrat as District Attorney in Dallas County, which had traditionally been a Republican stronghold. Since his election, Craig Watkins has received national acclaim for identifying wrongly convicted inmates and increasing the involvement of crime victims and neighborhoods in preventing and responding to crime. Mr. Watkins was a panelist at our 6th Annual Policy Orientation for the Texas Legislature, and he sat down for this conversation on the criminal justice process and the initiatives that he is undertaking in Dallas County.
Whether in the United States Congress or at the state level, the trend in health care policy has decidedly in the direction of a larger role for government. Voters say they want that, but should they? Looking at that question with us this week is Mary Katherine Stout, Vice President of Policy and Director of the Center for Health Care Policy at the Texas Public Policy Foundation.
2007 was an eventful year in Texas policy. This week, we are pleased to bring you a roundtable discussion featuring the policy team at the Texas Public Policy Foundation looking back at 2007 and ahead to 2008.
The Texas Constitution authorizes the Legislature to meet in regular session for 140 days in each odd-numbered year. So what do they do the rest of the time? Well, when they are fortunate enough not to be called back into special session, they are researching issues in preparation for the next regular session. Last month, Texas House Speaker Tom Craddick issued interim charges to the various House committees, and we sat down with him recently to discuss those charges.
Last month, many Texas cable customers accustomed to seeing their Dallas Cowboys play couldn't see the game against the Green Bay Packers due to an ongoing dispute between the National Football League and several major cable providers over carriage of the NFL Network. As the two sides remain deadlocked at the negotiating table, they have pressed their cases through vigorous and expensive public relations campaigns. And with this week's Houston Texans game and next week's Dallas game also affected by this dispute, the Texas Legislature is getting involved. On Monday, the House Regulated Industries Committee held a public hearing on this issue. Bill Peacock, Director of the Foundation's Center for Economic Freedom, testified at the hearing, and you can find both his testimony and his latest commentary on the Foundation's website at www.TexasPolicy.com.
In October, the TPPF board selected Dr. Wendy Lee Gramm as its new Chairman. The late President Ronald Reagan called her "his favorite economist" and the Wall Street Journal dubbed her "the Margaret Thatcher of financial regulation." She began her career teaching economics at Texas A&M and served in high-level positions in both the Reagan and first Bush administrations - among them, executive director of the Presidential Task Force on Regulatory Relief, and chairman of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Besides her work with TPPF, she is also a distinguished senior scholar at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. We are pleased to bring you a conversation with our new chairman, Dr. Wendy Lee Gramm.
Millions of Texans have committed a criminal offense at some point in their lives. The conventional wisdom is that an ex-offender can settle his debt to society by paying a fine, maybe serving a little time, and completing probation or parole. But increasingly, ex-offenders in Texas are finding that their state government continues to treat them like criminals, thwarting their ability to make an honest living and positive contributions to their communities. The Foundation's Center for Effective Justice hosted a Policy Primer on November 7, 2007 that addressed this issue - the audio of which is available in the multimedia section on TexasPolicy.com. The Center has also issued a new report on this issue entitled, "Working With Conviction: Criminal Offenses as Barriers to Entering Licensed Occupations in Texas," and its author, Marc Levin, is our guest this week.
The Honorable Maurice McTigue had a distinguished career as a member in the New Zealand Parliament, during which he played a key role in the reform and deregulation of a variety of industries and government functions, including public education. When McTigue took office, New Zealand's education system was plagued by bureaucratic micromanagement, outsized administrative costs, and poor student performance. (Sound familiar?) What McTigue and others came up with was the "Tomorrow's Schools" initiative, which broke up the government bureaucracy and gave parents unprecedented control over the operations of their children's schools. We discussed that with him in the second part of our two-part interview.
The Honorable Maurice McTigue had a distinguished career as a member in the New Zealand Parliament, during which he played a key role in the reform and deregulation of a variety of industries and government functions. In 1999, Queen Elizabeth the Second bestowed him with the Queen's Service Order, one of the highest honors attainable for public service in New Zealand. Today, he is Vice President and Director of the Government Accountability Project at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, which allows him to communicate the lessons of his practical experience to policymakers in the United States. In the first of a two-part interview, he shares his thoughts on how to create a more prosperous Texas.
The Texas tax system has been a major reason why our economy and population have been booming the last several years. But with a new business tax kicking in next spring, will Texas still look good compared to other states? We explored these questions with Stephen Moore, senior economics writer and editorial board member at The Wall Street Journal, when he was in Austin last week to speak at the inaugural Capital Campus Texas.
The media frequently reports on math and science shortages, both in industry and in the teaching field. This is no surprise, given that Texas and U.S. students score behind the rest of the world in math and science achievement tests. Over the past two years, the Texas Public Policy Foundation has investigated the state of math and science education in Texas, publishing a series of papers that will soon culminate in a reform agenda for Texas policymakers. Discussing these findings with us this week is Jamie Story, an education policy analyst at the Texas Public Policy Foundation.
Over the last few years, Texas has been on the leading edge of a national debate on how best to meet the infrastructure needs of a growing population and economy. In many countries, the private sector has been given a prominent role in the development and management of major infrastructure projects. But in Texas, proposals for privately built and financed toll projects have met with vehement opposition. We look at these issues in the second part of our interview with Len Gilroy, senior policy analyst at the Reason Foundation and managing editor of the Reason Foundation's Privatization Watch newsletter.
