The Sam Adams Alliance - Building a network for liberty

Texas Resource Guide

October 30, 2007

Sam Adams State Resource Guides are designed to help citizens get involved in their home state.

Do you have additional information that you'd like to see on this list? Please email your tips to resources@samadamsalliance.org.

Background

The Democratic Party in Texas held power at the state and local levels for most of the first half of the twentieth century. However, since the 1960s the Republican Party has been steadily gaining ground and today enjoys a dominant position in state politics. The governor, Rick Perry, is of the Republican Party and has served in his position since the departure of former state governor George W. Bush. The state Senate is composed of 31 senators—20 are Republican and 11 are Democrats. The state House of Representatives is comprised of 150 members, of which 80 are Republican and 70 are Democrats. There are no term limits on members of the state legislature. The Republican Party also controls all statewide offices.

Issues

Initiative and Referendum

At the state level Texas does not allow for initiative and referendum. There is widespread I & R rights at the local level though. 263 cities throughout the state have such provisions. Currently, Initiative for Texas, is leading the movement to pass statewide I&R.

Property Taxes

The Texas state constitution prohibits a state property tax and a personal state income tax. However, property taxes are allowed at the local level. Public schools are maintained through local property taxes. However, property taxes may be collected by different jurisdictions within one region. So, there may be a city property tax, school district property tax, county property tax, etc. Due to increasing property taxes and public school spending increases, the state Supreme Court ruled in Neely v. Orange-Cove that the state needed to come up with a new source of revenue in order to lower school maintenance costs and lower the public school’s overdependence on property taxes. In response, Governor Perry made huge property tax cuts in 2006 that will result in a $6 billion cut over the next couple years, but also hiked up the cigarette tax and placed a tax on gross receipts to continue to subsidize public schools.

Trans-Texas Corridor

The TTC is a proposed 4,000 mile transportation network that would be used for the transportation of commuter and freight trains, passenger and truck traffic, and utilities. The TTC would be completely financed by private investment and be operated by the same entities in the form of highway tolls. The project would use about 600,000 acres of the land that would have to be obtained through the government’s assertion of eminent domain.

Double Tax Freeway Tolls
Freeway tolls shift public highways to tollways, which creates a monopolistic, unaccountable double taxation.

Freeway tolls are very different than conventional toll roads in the U.S. Conventional tolls are whole new routes which supplement a complete freeway system and are primarily funded with investor dollars. Freeway tolls are created with public assets such as the publics right of way and tax dollars.

The Freeway tolls don’t offer crucial free expressways as an alternative. Instead, frontage roads with stop lights and growing traffic congestion are touted as an alternative. With freeway tolls, government has a financial incentive NOT to address traffic congestion on frontage roads since increased traffic congestion provides higher toll tax revenues. Those in charge of setting the toll tax rate are unelected, therefore unaccountable to voters.

Think Tanks

Texas Public Policy Foundation
http://www.texaspolicy.com/

Texas Taxpayers and Research Association
http://www.ttara.org/default.aspx

Action Groups

Texas Landowners Council
http://www.texaslandownerscouncil.com/index.html

Citizens Lowering our Unfair Taxes
http://www.clouttexas.com/

Texas Toll Party
http://www.TexasTollParty.com

Texans for Fiscal Responsibility
http://www.empowertexans.com/

Initiative for Texas
http://www.initiativefortexas.org/

Americans for Prosperity- Texas
http://www.americansforprosperity.org/index.php?state=tx

Texans for Lawsuit Reform
http://www.tortreform.com/

Corridor Watch
http://www.corridorwatch.org/ttc_2007/CW00000102.htm