AUSTIN – Matthew Ladner, Ph.D., Senior Fellow at the Texas Public Policy Foundation’s Center for Education Policy, will testify on Senate Bill 23 before the Senate Education Committee on Tuesday, April 9, 2013, at 8:30 a.m. in room E1.028 of the Texas State Capitol. The bill is in favor of education tax credits. “An...
Press Release April 9, 2013AUSTIN – Today, Foundation policy analyst Jeanette Moll testified in favor of HB 1512, which would allow the use of victim/offender conferencing in the Texas criminal justice system for the first time. This process allows the victims of crimes to meet the offender in a controlled, safe environment to confront them about their crime and...
Press Release April 5, 2013AUSTIN – Arlene Wohlgemuth, Executive Director of the Texas Public Policy Foundation and Director of the Center for Healthcare Policy, issued this statement on the successful motion to reconsider Amendment 51 to SB 1: “Amendment 51, though it did not formally commit Texas to the ObamaCare Medicaid expansion, laid the groundwork for that expansion...
Press Release April 5, 2013AUSTIN – Arlene Wohlgemuth, Executive Director of the Texas Public Policy Foundation and Director of the Center for Healthcare Policy, issued this statement on the successful motion to reconsider Amendment 51 to SB 1: "Amendment 51, though it did not formally commit Texas to the ObamaCare Medicaid expansion, laid the groundwork for that expansion...
Press Release April 4, 2013AUSTIN – Matthew Ladner, Ph.D., Senior Fellow at the Texas Public Policy Foundation’s Center for Education Policy, will testify before the House Public Education Committee in favor of House Bill 3319 on Tuesday, April 2, 2013 at 2:00 p.m., or on adjournment, in room E2.036 of the Texas State Capitol. The bill raises the open...
Press Release April 2, 2013AUSTIN – Matthew Ladner, Ph.D., Senior Fellow at the Texas Public Policy Foundation’s Center for Education Policy, will testify before the House Public Education Committee in favor of House Bill 3319 on Tuesday, April 2, 2013 at 2:00 p.m., or on adjournment, in room E2.036 of the Texas State Capitol. The bill raises the open...
Press Release April 2, 2013AUSTIN – The Texas Public Policy Foundation’s President and CEO, Brooke Rollins, will be a guest on “The Mark Davis Show” on Tuesday, April 2, at 9:05 a.m. Central Time. Rollins will discuss real Medicaid reform as an alternative to the ObamaCare expansion, and the Foundation’s Save Texas Medicaid plan available here: www.texaspolicy.com/savetexasmedicaid “The Mark...
Press Release April 1, 2013AUSTIN – Texas Public Policy Foundation President and CEO Brooke Rollins will join Gov. Rick Perry, Sen. John Cornyn, and Sen. Ted Cruz at a roundtable discussion and press conference on the importance of not expanding Medicaid — whether under ObamaCare or any other scheme. The Foundation recently released a blueprint for Medicaid reform, Save...
Press Release March 28, 2013Bill Peacock, vice president of research and director of the Center for Economic Freedom at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, will testify before the House State Affairs Committee in support of House Bill 2026 on Wednesday, March 27, at the Texas State Capitol. HB 2026 will eliminate the state’s renewable energy credits trading program which provides subsidies for the generation of electricity from renewable energy sources.
Press Release March 27, 2013AUSTIN –The Texas Public Policy Foundation issued the following statement on debate in the Texas House over House Bill 4, a bill to establish a revolving water fund: “We agree that Texas needs greater and more reliable supplies of water to sustain its growth and industry. However, HB 4 presents two challenges,” said Arlene Wohlgemuth,...
Press Release March 27, 2013People keep moving to Texas because our policies foster economic growth. This growth has caused a boom in tax revenue which ironically threatens to grow government, the limited nature of which in Texas is largely responsible for our prosperity. Speaking of irony, how is it that in 2011, when lawmakers struggled with a huge biennial deficit, they decided to use $3.2 billion from the Rainy Day Fund (formally known as the Economic Stabilization Fund) to cover a shortfall that year’s budget. But now, in 2013, in a time of sunshine, some lawmakers are proposing to again use the Rainy Day Fund, this time to spend $2 billion to create another water fund on top of the existing $6 billion water fund. In any case, the newly proposed state budget is very close to its spending cap. Spending for a purpose other than what the Rainy Day Fund was created for would require a two-thirds vote in both houses as well as a vote to bust the spending cap—two votes that would set a dangerous precedent in setting Texas on the path of growing government ahead of the people’s ability to pay for it. Further, as important as water is, it ought to be debated in the context of the existing budget and under the current constitutional spending cap along with other important programs such as education, transportation or Medicaid. No one denies that Texas is in need of more water. But, what Texas needs more than money is reform at both the federal and state level. In addition to environmental regulations, Texas can improve its own water picture by eliminating state restrictions on the sale and repurposing of water rights and inter-basin water transfers. Having what will be an $11.8 billion pile of money laying around in 2015 is giving some lawmakers an urge to burn a hole in the public purse. If lawmakers really want to dip into the Rainy Day Fund, we have a suggestion: return the money to the people with a tax cut. Putting the complex and expensive to comply with Texas franchise tax on the road to elimination over six years would be an excellent use for $1.2 billion of this fund.
Press Release March 26, 2013Current state law requires all cities, counties, school districts, and special districts in Texas to purchase advertising space in print newspapers to publicize their public notices. House Bill 335 would relax that requirement to allow local governments to post public notices online instead of in print, potentially saving taxpayers millions of dollars every year. To better illustrate the savings at stake, we decided to submit Public Information Act requests to the top 5 counties, cities, and school districts in Texas asking them for the following information: “…the total amount expended by [NAME OF LOCAL ENTITY] for newspaper ads for public notices for the fiscal year of 2012.” Here is what we found: Local Govt. FY 2012 Estimate City of Dallas $3,018 City of Fort Worth $17,274 City of Austin $30,069 Tarrant County $49,216 Travis County $64,485 Harris County $266,146[i] Bexar County $276,601 Dallas County $350,480 Fort Worth ISD $12,953 Austin ISD $45,244 Dallas ISD $75,762 Northside ISD $81,324 Houston ISD $291,561 TOTAL $1.56 million According to James Quintero, TPPF’s Sr. Fiscal Policy Analyst who testified recently to the House Committee on Technology on this issue: “As you can see from the totals listed above, local governments around the state are incurring annual expenses for advertising that run into the millions. For just the [13] cities, counties, and school districts listed above, the total amounts to [$1.56] million. These are resources that are not available to schools, roads, libraries, or any other purpose—but they could be.” [i] Harris County’s response to the open records request could not be tabulated before the committee hearing.
Press Release March 25, 2013