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School Districts Stuck on Spend

What to Know: Several Central Texas school districts “are weighing raises this year” despite facing massive budget shortfalls, faltering local economies, and surging unemployment. Any across-the-board increase would come on top of last year’s “historic raises.”

The TPPF Take: School district spending drives taxation. Central Texas ISDs—and public schools everywhere—should press pause on all new spending and remember the taxpayer.

“Hard-hit taxpayers need a time-out,” says TPPF’s James Quintero. “Now is not the time to entertain ideas that will grow payroll costs further, which usually represent an ISD’s largest expense. Every school board should instead be searching for aggressive cost-cutting solutions to help hold the line on spending and protect taxpayers.”

Human Trafficking

What to Know: Human traffickers are taking advantage of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The TPPF Take: Texas has the second highest rate of human trafficking in the United States, and the number of identified cases rises each year.

“The number of human trafficking victims continues to rise each year, with an estimated 313,000 victims in Texas at any given moment, a quarter of which are suspected to be children,” says TPPF’s Nikki Pressley. “Given the current economic crisis caused by government responses to COVID-19, the risk of individuals falling victim to human trafficking for the purpose of compelled labor or commercial sex acts is at an all-time high.”

Fair and Free Elections

What to Know: Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is asking the Texas Supreme Court for a ruling on mail-in ballots.

The TPPF Take: The Texas Public Policy Foundation’s Election Integrity Project released the “Secure, Accountable and Free Elections” agenda outlining reforms to ensure Texas is a model for accurate and reliable elections.

“Voters should understand their rights and the rules of voting, they should be free to choose, and the voting system should preserve the integrity of each ballot,” said TPPF’s Francisco “Quico” Canseco. “The SAFE Elections agenda ensures that every citizen’s basic democratic right to vote is protected from intentional fraud and inefficient bureaucracy. As a fundamental feature of keeping our public officials accountable and our society free, our voting rights must be defended vigilantly.”