by TFR Staff | May 12, 2025 | 89th TXLege, Texe Lege
The Texas budget is put together using smoke and mirrors. Everything about the appropriations process is designed to hide the total cost and true size of the state government from Texas taxpayers. For instance, the Legislative Budget Board shows that total Texas state...
by TFR Staff | May 9, 2025 | 89th TXLege, Texe Lege
Introduction The Texas Constitution contains two limits on state government spending. One of them is a balanced budget amendment, known as the Pay-As-You-Go Limit. Because of this, Texas cannot use deficit spending to support most state expenditures. While this is...
by TFR Staff | May 8, 2025 | 89th TXLege, Texe Lege
When the Texas House and Texas Senate vote on whether to approve the final versions of House Bill 500 and Senate Bill 1, Figure 1 shows that they will be voting on whether to approve more than $53 billion in new spending of state funds. Figure 1: New State Funds...
by TFR Staff | May 6, 2025 | 89th TXLege, Texe Lege
Since 2019, including what is proposed this session, the Texas Legislature has increased spending on public schools by about $23 billion in the name of property tax relief. It has done little to help Texans; during that period, Figure 1 shows that property tax revenue...
by TFR Staff | May 5, 2025 | 89th TXLege, Texe Lege
On April 11, 26 Texas House members voted against the budget bill, Senate Bill 1 (SB 1). That was the most no votes against a Texas budget since 29 members voted against the budget in 2013. Nineteen of the no votes were from Republicans. But there are good reasons why...
