Texas GOP Vote

The Texas Society of Certified Public Accountants (TSCPA) recently published a paper analyzing President Obama’s proposed FY 2014 budget. TSCPA began its non-partisan analysis by quoting from the President’s budget message that stated he wanted to “eliminate unnecessary fossil fuel subsidies that impede investment in clean energy sources.” TSCPA noted that the President hopes that by eliminating

Five years ago Lone Star College System (LSCS) asked voters to pass a bond. This year they are doing it again and making the same promises they broke in 2008. The new bond issue, if passed, could drive the total debt load of LSCS to $1 billion. You may not be able to do much about a $16 trillion debt at the national level but you can do quite a bit about a potential $1 billion debt in your own backyard.   Read more »

The National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) is a political committee devoted to maintaining and increasing the 239-member Republican majority in the U.S. House of Representatives.   Read more »

Houston Independent School District school board president Greg Meyers announced yesterday the anticipated impact of Houston's Proposition 1 on the district. He told KTRK Channel 13 that the proposition would cost the district over $2.5 - 3.5 million per year and would force the layoff of about 70 teachers.   Read more »

Last night's opening skit of Saturday Night Live had Fred Armisen impersonate Obama and go down our president's list of non-accomplishments, starting with not getting the Olympics for Chicago 2016 and going on from there... This skit concluded with a grand total of no accomplishments. Oh wait, he did get a white policeman and a black professor together for a beer, and he did swat a fly on TV!

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The Market Fairness Act just passed the Senate. The Act would give local entities the power to require retailers with sales of over one million dollars a year to collect state and local sales taxes for online purchases. The bill passed with an overwhelming majority in the Senate with only a few Senators like Ted Cruz and Rand Paul voting against it. The bill is likely to face fierce opposition in the House. This bill encapsulates what is wrong with the government’s view of how to improve the economy.

Is the sale of the jail, which the County will continue to lease, the best way to resolve the problems the County has created by building a jail which the County does not currently need?

Texas law allows Counties to issue Revenue Bonds, which are secured by the revenues of a project, without voter approval. But it is inconceivable that the legislature intended this provision to be used where the source of the revenue is not a third party. That is exactly the situation created by the Joe Corley Jail financing. The County established

Once we were California dreaming and California was the place that you would go to pursue your dreams. Today, it is the state where you are from, not where you are going. When the largest state, population wise, is failing, it does hurt the nation. The following stats illustrate California’s problems. California has some of the nation's highest state taxes including gasoline, sales taxes and is a top bracket of income taxes,

Today I introduced legislation that would make it more difficult to raise taxes on hardworking Americans. The government already takes enough money from Americans. President Obama raised taxes by $1 trillion under Obamacare. He raised them again by $600 billion in the fiscal cliff deal. And his budget requests another $1.1 trillion in increased tax revenue. Enough is enough.   Read more »

The U.S. income tax code is infamous for its complexity (think special interest lobbyists), and its “progressive” nature—named not for the fact that it increases with increasing income but rather, because it was the brainchild of the Progressive party that is now called the Democratic Party. In that sense, maybe we should call it the “Democratic Party Income Tax”.

However, let’s assume that there are six different people standing in line to buy groceries. They all buy precisely the same things, and the cash register total comes out to $100 even, no sales tax included since the goods are food. All six dutifully plop down their cash, debit or credit cards, write a check, or hand over a “Lone Star” card.   Read more »