The Texas Legislature is widely expected to convene in yet another special legislative session in the coming weeks. This time they will reportedly focus on education freedom and parental choice or school choice and salary increases for government school teachers….

After this exciting weekend, there is no doubt that you have heard that the Texas House Board of Managers’ attempt to impeach Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has failed. On Saturday Paxton was acquitted on all charges and able to…

With the Federal Government’s fiscal year rapidly coming to an end on September 30th, Congress must pass a “continuing resolution,” on spending, or once again face a partial government shutdown. This continuing resolution is essentially a temporary spending bill, using…

After months of significant declines in CPI inflation, today the CPI (Consumer Price Index) numbers for August showed a resurgence of inflation in the U.S. In August, the CPI rose by 0.6 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis, marking a…

The US economy under President Biden continued its mellow pace in August, as Americans continued to strain under the burdens of record inflation, rising interest rates, and economic uncertainty.  The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics released its raw jobs report…

$33 trillion. Written another way, $33,000,000,000,000. The U.S. National Debt is estimated to surpass $33 trillion in a matter of days. Sadly, milestones like these seem to have become all too regular. Just one year ago I wrote a similar…

Every year in August and September, Local Governments across the Lone Star State set about the task of proposing and then adopting their tax rates and budgets for the next year. Last month, TFR reminded Texas taxpayers about the impending…

Highlights Figure 1: Year-Over-Year Real Average Weekly Earnings Declined for 26 Months Before Increasing in the Last Three but Remains Down Nearly 5% Since January 2021 Overview Labor Market The Bureau of Labor Statistics recently released its U.S. jobs report…

This Friday, the first of September, roughly 800 new laws passed by the Texas Legislature and signed by Governor Abbott are going fully or partially into effect for the first time.   One of those bills designed to protect Texans from…

Earlier this month, TFR reminded Texas Taxpayers that the time of local budget setting and property tax rate adoptions was rapidly approaching.  Now, just a few weeks later, many major cities and counties across the Lone Star State have put…

Overview Debt A recent report by the Texas Bond Review Board notes that Texas’ total outstanding local government debt is $280 billion, resulting in debt per capita of $8,869. This puts Texas’ local debt per capita in third place of…

This Friday, September 1st, 2023, marks the day nearly 800 new laws, passed by the 88th Legislature, go into effect. Of those, several will impact Texas taxpayers directly both immediately and into the future.  For Texas taxpayers, the 88th Legislative…

Texas is a leader in job creation over the last year and since February 2020. But Texas faces major headwinds as the recently ended 88th Legislature looked more like California than what is expected from the free-market bastion of hope…

In the intricate political landscape of Texas politics, more often than not those politicians that claim to be “Republicans” or “conservatives” advocate for fiscally responsible government, lower taxes, and less spending by government entities. Dallas Changing their Playbook? Yet, in…

Recently a song from an independent music artist Oliver Anthony went viral on social media, ultimately topping many song-ranking charts, much to the chagrin of many well-established music artists. The song is chalked full of anti-elitist themes, presumably speaking to…