October 9, 2018 3:57 PM Greenfield: State Expenditures in FY18 should leave conservatives pleased and liberals depressed By the numbers, economist Dr. Stuart Greenfield lays out what’s happening with the Texas budget, this time on the expenditure side of the equation With
the close of FY18, State Comptroller Glenn
Hegar announced state tax collections and revenue increased at a
substantial rate. The Comptroller noted that both All Funds tax collections and
total revenue increased at substantial rates, 12.0 percent, and 8.1 percent,
respectively. Comptroller
Hegar did not comment on total state expenditures, which increased (3.5
percent), a rate substantially lower than the increase in state revenue. The
agency will soon release the Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR)
and the Annual Cash Report. Both
reports document state revenue and expenditures for FY18. For
now, I’ll offer an overview of state expenditures for FY18 based on the cash
report. By Dr. Stuart Greenfield The rest of the story, subscribers only |
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October 2, 2018 4:37 PM Grusendorf: What Texas Blue Wave?From the right: Former Rep. Kent Grusendorf, a Republican, doubts there will be a blue wave but says if there is one, the degree to which a partisan shift occurs in the Texas House will have great ramifications for the speaker’s race A few
weeks ago Republican Pete Flores won a race in a presumed safe Democratic Texas
Senate district against Pete
Gallego, a well-known and respected politician. That seat, having been in
the hands of Democrats for well over a century, was assumed secure for the
Democrat in the special election after the criminal conviction of incumbent Sen.
Carlos Uresti.
This huge election upset emerged despite daily reminders in the media that we
have a potential Blue Wave on the horizon. So, is
the coming Texas Blue Wave genuine, or just wishful delusion on the part of the
media and their Democrat allies? Is conservative Senator Ted Cruz really at risk? If real, what impact could such a blue wave
have on the November elections in Texas? By Kent Grusendorf The rest of the story, subscribers only |
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September 28, 2018 12:30 PM Smith: We are going to need a bigger boat QR’s Liberal Columnist Glenn W. Smith wonders whether American democracy is strong enough to survive its demons Remember
the scene in the movie, Jaws? After Roy Scheider gets a look at the killer
great white shark, he says to Robert
Shaw, “You’re going to need a bigger boat.” That’s
the reaction I have to the menacing demon gliding today through democracy’s
waters. A fierce and insatiable obsession with power is eating away at the soul
of America, destroying faith in democracy and creating economic and political
inequality we haven’t seen in decades. To
survive it, we’re going to need a bigger boat. By Glenn W. Smith The rest of the story, subscribers only |
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September 26, 2018 2:30 PM Greenfield: It Was a Very Good Year and a Good EstimateEconomist Dr. Stuart Greenfield argues candidates should hope and pray economic growth continues, they could also push policies that promote economic growth like improved public and higher education The
close of FY18 on August 31 should bring joy to the state and the Revenue
Estimating professionals at the Comptroller’s Office. General
Revenue-Related (GRR) receipts ($57.2 billion) exceeded the revised July Certification
Revenue Estimate ($57.0 billion) by a minimal 0.3 percent ($164.4
million). Most of this increase will
flow to the bottom line, as $137.4 million (83.6 percent) of the GRR revenue
increase is from increased sales tax collections. Figure 1 shows
the cumulative YTD growth in GRR revenue for FY14 through FY18. The percentage
increase (9.3 percent) in GRR revenue was greater than the percentage changes
in any fiscal year since FY12 (12.9 percent). The rate of growth was over three
times the growth rate in FY17. Both the tax collections and non-tax portions of
GRR revenue grew at a rate somewhat above the estimate. The
current estimate expects GRR tax collections to decrease by 0.5 percent in FY19
and non-tax GRR revenue to increase by 1.7 percent. These changes in FY19
revenue sources will result in no change in FY19 total GRR revenue. By Dr. Stuart Greenfield The rest of the story, subscribers only |
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September 12, 2018 4:33 PM TCC: First step in funding kids' services in next state budget The staff at Texans Care for Children take a look at the budget requests for DSHS, TEA, DFPS, HHSC and more While
thousands of bills are filed in each legislative session, many observers have
pointed out that the most important one for Texas kids and families is the
state budget bill. State
agencies recently took an important step in the budget-writing process when
they released their Legislative
Appropriations Requests (LARs). The Speaker of the House, the Lt. Governor,
and the Legislative Budget Board (LBB) will use those LARs to help them write
the first draft of the state budget, which is typically released early in the
legislative session. By Texans Care for Children Staff The rest of the story, subscribers only |
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September 10, 2018 2:35 PM Grusendorf: Are We Funding Our Own Demise? Former Rep. Kent Grusendorf seeks to set these youngsters straight about the realities of socialism Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a soon to be a member of the US
House of Representatives, has received a lot of public attention
recently regarding her aggressive support of socialism. Cortez is not unique. Despite
the totality of world history and empirical evidence to the contrary,
millennials have a more favorable opinion of socialism than of capitalism. In
fact, polls indicate that a majority of millennials
would prefer to live in socialist, fascist, or communist regimes than under
capitalism. Wow! By Kent Grusendorf The rest of the story, subscribers only |
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August 30, 2018 2:40 PM Villanueva: We Agree, Gov. Abbott, Texas must boost school funding, here is how to do itChandra Villanueva at the Center for Public Policy Priorities commends the governor for committing to more funding for schools and outlines the potential pitfalls lawmakers may encounter in trying to make it a reality This
week Governor Abbott made
a case for boosting state funding to our public schools. We agree that
money matters in education, and the 5.4 million public school students in Texas
deserve smaller class sizes, state-of-the-art technology, enriching art programs
and more. In
the last decade, the state’s portion of public school funding has plummeted,
leaving local property taxpayers to pick up the difference. In 2008 the state
and localities split the funding responsibility for public schools almost
equally, 50-50. In 2019, local school districts pay about 62 percent of the
price tag for schools, while the state pays only 38 percent. By Chandra Villanueva, CPPP The rest of the story, subscribers only |
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Copyright October 09, 2018, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved 