AUSTIN – The Texas Public Policy Foundation issued the following statement on Gov. Perry’s directive to seek a Medicaid block grant: “The Governor’s directive to the Texas Health and Human Services Commission to seek a Medicaid block grant is a welcome move to place the future of texas healthcare into Texans hands,” said Arlene Wohlgemuth,...
Press Release September 17, 2013AUSTIN – Texas Public Policy Foundation experts Kathleen Hartnett White and Josiah Neeley co-authored an article in the latest issue of the Texas Tech Administrative Law Journal. The article, Who Regulates the Regulator? Cost-Effectiveness Analysis In Texas State Agency Rulemaking, 14 Tex. Tech Admin. L. J. 401 (2013), examines how appropriately structured regulatory impact analysis can increase...
Press Release September 11, 2013Conservatives won a landslide victory this weekend in Australia. A coalition of the Liberal and National parties (which in Australian terms are the right of center political parties) led by Tony Abbott won 88 seats in Australia’s 150 seat parliament, against 57 seats by left-wing Labor Party. One key factor behind this electoral victory was the unpopularity of Australia’s new carbon tax scheme, which had been instituted under the previous Labor government. Incoming Prime Minister Tony Abbott has pledged to repeal the carbon tax, and even Labor leader Kevin Rudd campaigned on a promise to convert it into a cap-and-trade system. The election is important to America because of what is says about the political viability of carbon taxes. In fact, as Robert Murphy of the Institute for Energy Research has noted, Australia’s carbon tax experience casts doubt on many of the claims made in favor of a carbon tax. Both electricity prices and unemployment spiked in Australia after its carbon tax was introduced, without any comparable environmental benefit: [T]he promises of those calling for a “pro-growth” U.S. carbon tax have been proven to be utterly false in Australia: Its carbon tax came with income tax increases and fewer jobs as well as morecommand-and-control energy regulations. The debate over a carbon tax is now not just one of theoretical speculation; proponents need to explain why the U.S. outcome would be different from what actually happened in Australia.
Press Release September 9, 2013Last week, the U.S. Justice Department filed suit against the state of Louisiana over its education scholarship program, claiming that as much “impeded the desegregation process” in Louisiana public schools under federal orders to desegregate. From the New Orleans Times-Picayune: Thirty-four school systems could be affected, including those of Jefferson, Plaquemines, St. John the Baptist and St. Tammany parishes. Under the lawsuit, the state would be barred from assigning students in those systems to private schools unless a federal judge agreed to it. A court hearing is tentatively set for Sept. 19. These are treacherous waters. Mandatory racial segregation, especially within our education system, was a shameful practice and represents a dark period in our country’s proud history. Parents of all races and classes should have the right to send their child to any school they want. That’s what desegregation in our education system should ultimately be about. Unfortunately, this lawsuit, even though its heart (for lack of better phrasing) may be in the right place, seems to run counter to the notion of freedom of choice in in our school systems: The Justice Department's primary argument is that letting students leave for vouchered private schools can disrupt the racial balance in public school systems that desegregation orders are meant to protect. Those orders almost always set rules for student transfers with the school system. The danger here lies in putting an ideal vision of the public school system over the good of students themselves. That is the potential harm in this lawsuit, regardless of one’s opinion on education scholarships or what the federal government’s role in education should be. Is limiting the freedom of parents and students to attend a school that best suits their needs going to enhance equality, or quality for that matter, in our education system? A final note: this lawsuit also demonstrates one of the drawbacks of statewide education scholarship programs, which is to say legal vulnerability. Over the last few years, several of the country’s larger choice programs—Indiana’s, New Hampshire’s, and Louisiana even before the federal suit—have faced litigation, though more commonly from within their own state rather than from the DOJ. Indiana successfully defended their program. New Hampshire and Louisiana have thus far been less successful in doing so. States considering the implementation of such programs in the future (hopefully including Texas) should be very careful when designing such a program to reduce the risk of legal challenge. The opponents of school choice are numerous and motivated, a fact that education reformers should always keep in mind.
Press Release August 27, 2013AUSTIN – Talmadge Heflin, Director of the Center for Fiscal Policy at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, issued this statement today on the recent employment report from the Texas Workforce Commission: “Although Texas’ unemployment rate remained steady in July, the Lone Star State actually added 19,900 seasonally adjusted total nonfarm jobs that month, for a total...
Press Release August 27, 2013AUSTIN – The Texas Public Policy Foundation announced today that Sarah Rumpf and Derek Cohen have joined their team. Rumpf will serve as the Strategic Communications Manager for the Foundation’s Right on Crime initiative and Cohen will be a policy analyst for the Center for Effective Justice, the Foundation’s host center for the Right on...
Press Release August 19, 2013AUSTIN – The Texas Public Policy Foundation’s Mario Loyola has been named Chief Counsel. He will help oversee the Foundation’s work advancing liberty through the courts, including constitutional litigation. Loyola joined the Foundation in July 2010 as founding Director of the Center for Tenth Amendment Studies, focusing on energy and environment, healthcare, and other federalism...
Press Release August 14, 2013AUSTIN – The Texas Public Policy Foundation’s Center for Fiscal Policy and Center for Local Governance will hold a joint policy primer, “What Do You Owe and What Do You Know?” on Wednesday, August 7, from 11:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. at the Legislative Conference Center inside the Texas State Capitol. This is the first...
Press Release August 6, 2013In case you missed it, Texas Comptroller Susan Combs was recently on Fox Business discussing Detroit’s fiscal implosion and whether there are cities in the Lone Star State faced with similar budgetary challenges. More from the interview: Interviewer: Are certain Texas cities in trouble? Combs: Houston. Houston has a problem. And Houston has unfunded liabilities in the billions… Click here to watch the full video.
Press Release August 5, 2013Brooke Rollins, President and CEO of the Texas Public Policy Foundation, issued the following statement today on the Foundation's decision to join a class-action lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service.
Press Release August 5, 2013In case you missed it, Texas Comptroller Susan Combs was recently on Fox Business discussing Detroit’s fiscal implosion and whether there are cities in the Lone Star State faced with similar budgetary challenges. More from the interview: Interviewer: Are certain Texas cities in trouble? Combs: Houston. Houston has a problem. And Houston has unfunded liabilities in the billions… Click here to watch the full video.
Press Release August 5, 2013AUSTIN – This past week, the Texas Public Policy Foundation's criminal-justice reform efforts — and specifically its groundbreaking national Right on Crime initiative — were spotlighted in both the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times. The New York Times piece, "U.S. Prison Populations Decline, Reflecting New Approach to Crime," (at http://nyti.ms/16g5Jmu) quoted Director of TPPF's Center for Effective Justice...
Press Release July 29, 2013