Today, the Texas Public Policy Foundation published Just the Facts: Property Taxes in Texas’s Most Populous Cities, Counties, and School Districts. “The local property tax is the biggest tax in Texas,” said James Quintero, policy director of the Government for the People campaign at the Texas Public Policy Foundation. “In 2017, more than 4,000 local governments hit...
Press Release October 21, 2020Today, the Houston city council adopted a property tax rate of $0.561840 per $100 of taxable value, which will raise taxes on the average homestead from $1,365 per year to $1,407 per year. The city cited a disaster loophole to increase taxes by more than 3.5% without voter approval. The vote was 13 – 4....
Press Release October 21, 2020Today, the Texas Public Policy Foundation’s Executive Director Kevin Roberts, Ph.D., will take part in a roundtable discussion with HUD Secretary Ben Carson on the federal government’s response to homelessness. “New federal data shows that the previous administration’s homelessness policy, known as Housing First, has not worked despite the promise that the program would end...
Press Release October 21, 2020The Texas Public Policy Foundation is pleased to announce that roughly one year after forming the Border Security Coalition, the group has doubled in size. In recent months the coalition has added several former members of Congress, conservative leaders representing activists across the country and the former director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Tom...
Press Release October 20, 2020On Wednesday, the Houston City Council will discuss adopting a property tax rate for fiscal year 2021. Officials have proposed a tax rate of $0.561840 per $100 of taxable value which will increase city taxes on the average homestead by $42 or 3.06%. The no-new-revenue tax rate—or the tax rate that will raise the same...
Press Release October 20, 2020Today, Right on Crime, a project of the Texas Public Policy Foundation, published the handbook From Costing the Taxpayers to Being Taxpayers: Why Second-Chance Hiring is Right on Crime which aims to assist employers in the hiring of individuals with criminal records. “During a 5-year period ending in 2018, over 42% of inmates in state and federal...
Press Release October 20, 2020The Texas Public Policy Foundation’s Life:Powered project submitted public comments to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regarding its proposal to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from airplanes. “Instead of further cementing the flawed notion that the Clean Air Act grants authority to regulate substances that are not pollutants, the EPA should focus its efforts on continuing...
Press Release October 20, 2020Today, the Texas Public Policy Foundation published the paper Lessons from COVID-19: The Importance of Meaningful Contact between Foster Youth and Parents. “During the early days of COVID-19, child welfare agencies and courts with jurisdiction over child protection cases suspended in-person visitation between children and parents and postponed important reunification hearings,” said Andrew Brown, distinguished senior...
Press Release October 15, 2020An analysis of early voting in several major Texas counties shows that Texans are shifting how they vote and does not necessarily exhibit a surge in voting activity. The counties that have so far fully reported early voting are Tarrant, Bexar, Travis, Collin, Hidalgo, Montgomery, Galveston, and Cameron. These counties include several significant areas in Texas, such as...
Press Release October 14, 2020Today, the Texas Public Policy Foundation published the paper Objection! Law Schools Can Be Hazardous to Students’ Financial Health. “Among academic fields with the most graduates, the field of law performed the worst on a debt-to-earnings test called the Gainful Employment Equivalent (GEE),” said the Texas Public Policy Foundation’s Andrew Gillen, Ph.D. “Of the 168...
Press Release October 13, 2020Today, the Texas Public Policy Foundation published the paper Exposing Overreach: Harris County. “During the COVID-19 pandemic, state and local officials have been operating under broad authority placing many new rules and restrictions on Texans and their engagement in everyday activities,” said Shelby Sterling, policy analyst at the Texas Public Policy Foundation. “Some of these restrictions,...
Press Release October 7, 2020Today, the Texas Public Policy Foundation published the paper Border Security at a Crossroads: The Uncertain Future of America’s Southwestern Border. “The United States experienced a massive surge of migrants making their way to America’s southwestern borders in 2019,” said the paper’s co-author Igor Magalhaes. “Unlike previous waves of migrants, this one was comprised primarily...
Press Release October 5, 2020