Research
Eliminating Property Taxes in Texas: Real Options for True Homeownership and Economic Prosperity
Property taxes are a financial burden that Texans can no longer afford to endure. Over the past 26 years, Figure 1 illustrates how property taxes have increased by an unsustainable 330%, far outpacing population and inflation growth of 136%. Figure…
Texas Spending in the Current Biennium Likely to Top $400 Billion
The old truism is that there are two certainties in life, death and taxes. I’d like to modify that slightly to death and government spending. After all, government spending is why taxes exist. No spending, no taxes. But there is…
2026-27 Frozen Texas Budget: Reining in Unsustainable Spending
Overview Introduction Recently, the Texas Legislative Budget Board released the Fiscal Size-Up 2024-25 Biennium report with the latest estimated or budgeted amounts in the prior 2022-23 budget and the appropriated 2024-25 budget. The results from the 88th Texas Legislature’s efforts…
The Real Size of Texas Government
Executive Summary The only thing the Texas Legislature must do when they meet every two years is adopt a budget. Not surprisingly, with years of practice they have gotten pretty good at spending taxpayers’ money. For instance, the Legislature appropriated…
Why Does Texas Need Universal School Choice?
This commentary was originally published at VanceGinn.com here. It is being republished with permission from the author. Overview Despite increases in public education expenditures with taxpayer money in Texas, student performance is flat or declining. Texas is falling behind thriving states…
Let Americans Prosper Project: Ensuring Fiscal Sustainability for America’s Future
This commentary was originally published at VanceGinn.com here. It is being republished with permission from the author. Executive Summary The United States faces a critical fiscal crisis due to the lack of robust economic growth and excessive government spending. This leads…
Bold Reform to Rein in Wyoming’s Soaring Property Taxes
Executive Summary The Problem: The Three-Step Solution Our proposal turns restrained government spending into a direct benefit to those with property in Wyoming and a benefit to those without property who rent or lease. Whether someone has property or rents…
New Property Tax Numbers Prove Relief Was Not the Largest in Texas History
Texans are upset that their property tax relief is less than the Texas Legislature promised last year. While Texans for Fiscal Responsibility wrote about how we should expect this outcome, the reporting and claims about this relief were that it…
Texas Local Governments Must Limit Spending And Eliminate Property Taxes
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…
Texas Passes Largest Budget Increase in Texas History
Overview Texas Passes Largest Budget Increase in Texas History Texas Governor Greg Abbott (R) recently signed the Texas budget (HB 1) passed by the 88th Texas Legislature with the largest spending increases, the largest corporate welfare increases, and the largest social safety net…
Second-largest Property Tax Relief in Texas History
An Overview The good news is that state officials in Texas have been debating how to provide one of the largest tax cuts in the state’s history and were even talking about eliminating school maintenance and operations (M&O) property taxes….
Socialism on the Rise in Texas: An Examination of the Texas Budget
Executive Summary The Texas Legislature is in the midst of a 20-year spending spree. Since 2003, the appropriation of state funds per legislative session has increased from $76.2 billion to $233 billion. Remarkably, 44% of that growth happened in 2023…
What Happened to the Texas Budget Surplus?
Executive Summary A lot of people know about Texas’ $32.7 billion budget surplus. What most don’t know is that the Texas Legislature has $78.4 billion more in state funds to spend this year than it spent in 2021 and that…
Texas Senate Budget Exceeds Frozen Texas Budget
An Overview Texas Senate Budget Substantially Increases Appropriations Table 1 shows the amount by which the Texas Senate proposes to increase appropriations compared with what was appropriated for the 2022-23 budget. While the Legislative Budget Board shows a comparison of…
Texas House Budget Above Frozen Texas Budget
An Overview Texas House Budget Substantially Increases Appropriations Table 1 shows the amount by which the Texas House proposes to increase appropriations compared to what was appropriated for the 2022-23 budget. While the Legislative Budget Board shows a comparison of…