Renewing the Debate

What to Know: Corporations are investing billions into renewable energy—with the assurance of taxpayer-funded subsidies to hedge their bets.

The TPPF Take: Renewable subsidies are distorting our energy markets.

“While renewable subsidies have created one industry that wouldn’t otherwise exist, they are also debilitating another industry that has supplied Americans with reliable and affordable supplies of energy for over 100 years,” says TPPF’s Bill Peacock. “The answer to the market distortions is to eliminate subsidies—at the local, state and federal levels.”

Sunlight is the Best Disinfectant

What to Know: A new state law is shining a light on an appalling practice. Beginning late last year, Texas’ local governments are now required to disclose “in plain language to the public all of their taxpayer-funded lobbying contracts.”

The TPPF Take: This is a great first step toward ending taxpayer-funded lobbying.

“Local governments are spending public money on private lobbyists, oftentimes to advocate against the individual and in favor of greater government control. It’s nothing short of an outrage,” says TPPF’s James Quintero. “Exposing this practice to the light of day is the first step to ending it permanently.”

School Property Taxes

What to Know: As a helpful Dallas Morning News explainer shows, Texas schools are funded primarily through property taxes—a system that seems to satisfy no one.

https://www.dallasnews.com/news/politics/2020/01/09/with-no-state-income-tax-where-does-texas-get-its-money-curious-texas-investigates/

The TPPF Take: There are better ways to support public schools than property taxes.

“A reliance on local property taxes to fund education has been at the heart of its constitutional challenges for the better part of four decades,” says TPPF’s Austin Griesinger. “For example, the Legislature could buy down school maintenance and operations (M&O) property taxes over approximately a decade. This could be done by restricting state spending growth and using the resulting budget surpluses for the buy-down.”