AUSTIN – The Texas Public Policy Foundation today expressed its support for legislation announced by Comptroller Susan Combs: two bills on greater transparency in public education and pensions.
“Texas is once again at the forefront of the transparency movement, pushing for the sort of good government reforms that will give Texans more information, more choice, and more freedom,” said Talmadge Heflin, director of the Center for Fiscal Policy at the Texas Public Policy Foundation. “Public education and pensions are two areas where state and local governments tend to spend the most but have the least amount of sunlight. It’s high time we changed that,” said Heflin.
“Among other things,” adds Heflin, “these two bills would let Texans know who’s taxing them and why, require local governments to prepare basic financial reports, and put all this information online.”
“One of the most important things that will be accomplished through these reforms is the disclosure of basic spending and debt information to voters at the ballot box,” said Chuck DeVore, the Foundation’s vice president of Policy. “Giving voters basic information at the ballot box, like how much debt their city, county, or school district already owes, is just common sense. None of us would buy a car or a house without first knowing how much debt we have already, but yet we, as voters, are asked all the time to authorize debt many times that size without having some of the very same information.”
Chuck DeVore is Vice President of Policy at the Texas Public Policy Foundation.
The Honorable Talmadge Heflin is the Director of the Center for Fiscal Policy with the Texas Public Policy Foundation, a non-profit, free-market research institute based in Austin.
The Texas Public Policy Foundation is a non-profit, free-market research institute based in Austin.