How can we create transparent drug pricing?
The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) estimates prescription drug spending will grow an average of 6.3 percent annually over the 2016-2025 period.
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Why bathroom bills emerge
I've listened with particular interest to media reports regarding the “bathroom bill.” I must admit that, even as a social and political conservative, I think the specific bill may be ineffective. However, the issue of transgenderism, and even homosexuality, and bathrooms is much more complex than I typically hear reported by any media outlet.
It’s time to change the conversation about “token” judicial appointments
The makeup of the judiciary does not adequately reflect the rich demographic tapestry of our nation. With the support of respected judges such as yourself, we could reshape not only the conversation, but also the composition of the bench from small county courthouses all the way to the Supreme Court.
SNAP is a food program — not a jobs program
SNAP was designed as an income support, not a jobs program. That’s reasonable when one considers that most SNAP participants are children, seniors or people with disabilities; and that the majority of SNAP recipients who can work already do — just not at jobs that let them escape poverty.
The bullies run school finance in Texas
If it becomes law, SB 2 will siphon an estimated $600 million away from public education in the form of “tax credit scholarships” (read: “vouchers”) to unregulated private schools for special-needs children. While that sounds nice, there only are 51 private special education schools in the state, exactly zero of which exist outside of major cities.
Patch the state budget for fragile kids
Unfortunately it takes a controversy like restoring cuts to the state’s acute therapy program to bring to light the negative effects of rapid growth in government healthcare programs and our failure to reform them. These factors are hurting Texas’ ability to care for the most vulnerable in our state.
Why Dallas parks matter to me — and should matter to you
As a society, we’ve become obsessed with controlling every aspect of our lives and have cluttered our days with jumping from one technological device to the next. Instead of uninhibited time outdoors, tablets and phones are now used to entertain children as soon as they’re old enough to hold them. We’ve forgotten what really makes us happier people, more creative individuals and more successful humans: simply being outside.
Trump transgender tweet ignores medical findings
If gender dysphoria, however, generates other medical problems like depression, then these should be insured in the same way that the sex-related problems of cisgender people are treated. In other words, medical care should be dispensed to transgender people in the same way that it is dispensed to non-transgender people.
Dark money, darker politics
Decades ago, the Texas Legislature decided that secret money in politics is corrosive to our democracy. Democracy dies when voters are denied critical information, when billionaires are shielded from the consequences of their political investments and when candidates can keep questionable expenditures away from the public eye.
Don’t cut off redemption for TaiChin Preyor
As a person of faith, I cannot look the other way, and neither can you. The fraud that was perpetrated on this vulnerable family was immoral. If we remain silent while the state prepares to take Preyor’s life, we are complicit in the injustice.
This is no way to treat animals, or humans
The consequences of failing to cool Texas prisons doesn’t just fall on the inmates. It also falls on taxpayers whose money gets wasted when the TDCJ incapacitates its wards with uncontrolled temperatures before they can engage in rehabilitative programming. And it falls on the general public when prisoners return to society less than fully reformed.
The sanctuary cities law and food insecurity in Texas’ immigrant community
Food assistance programs, whether funded by government or through a nonprofit’s food pantry, work together. An individual using both types of resources can access food more easily than if one pathway is cut off. The state’s new immigrant law does just that — indirectly cutting off resources to a vulnerable, under-served population.
Our priority must be new funding for schools
Despite having less money per student to work with, school districts have prioritized spending such that average teacher pay has risen by almost $5,400 since 2008. The real issue is not how schools prioritize their spending, but rather how the state prioritizes its own spending on public education.
It’s time to reform school finance for meaningful relief
The state’s portion of public school facilities funding peaked at 45 percent in 2000-2001, but now stands at a meager 7 percent. As state support declines, families’ annual property tax bills increase across the state — especially in our most desirable suburban communities which, ironically, are represented by some of our most conservative legislators.
Texas Leaders: Stop blaming students with disabilities and do your job
Instead of doing their jobs to repair their shameful failure in public schools, the Texas governor and lieutenant governor want to bribe families out of their children’s educational civil rights by offering vouchers to nowhere with their proposal to use public money for private schooling of special needs students.
Will Texas turn blue? Party labels are surprisingly hard to shake
Beto O’Rourke, who is set to challenge Republican Ted Cruz for his Senate seat in 2018, faces daunting odds, even though an analysis of his record in the House suggests that, if elected, he would be among the more moderate Democrats in the Senate. Party brand matters, and it is surprisingly difficult to shake.
When will Texas politicians stop repeating history by attacking abortion?
As the state legislative sessions of 2017 illustrate, attacks on access to sexual and reproductive healthcare continued across the country despite the U.S. Supreme Court's landmark ruling in Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt. In the revolution for reproductive justice, the ruling represents a well-deserved but incomplete victory.
Special legislative session breathes new life into property tax relief
The truth of the matter is that cities like Houston, Austin, Dallas and San Antonio benefit from Texas’ burdensome property tax code. While businesses, particularly commercial property owners, have watched their property valuations skyrocket over the past few years, municipalities are cashing in on the record high taxes being collected on Texas properties.
Hiding a real problem behind a bogus property tax reform
The Senate’s proposal to limit cities and counties from raising the funds they need to pay police officers, firefighters and paramedics is a bad idea. Senate Bill 1, as this proposal is called in this special legislative session, would also threaten local funding for health care, parks and libraries. Fund public education and the rest will take care of itself.
Shutting down unfunded mandates — the state’s no-limit credit card
Inefficient school finance formulas aren’t the only factor driving up property taxes. The Legislature often forces back-door tax increases through new legislation, rules and regulations that impose added costs on counties, leaving local taxpayers to pick up the tab. Unfortunately, these unfunded mandates have become all too common.