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Ross Ramsey

Ross Ramsey’s staff photo

Ross Ramsey co-founded The Texas Tribune in 2009 and served as its executive editor until his retirement in 2022. He wrote regular columns on politics, government and public policy. Before joining the Tribune, he was editor and co-owner of Texas Weekly. He did a 28-month stint in government with the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts. Before that, he reported for the Houston Chronicle, the Dallas Times Herald, as a Dallas-based freelancer for regional and national magazines and newspapers, and for radio stations in Denton and Dallas.

Latest Contributions

  • Castaway

    By Ross Ramsey

    Skip the bit where your plane crashes into the ocean in the middle of a rainy night and strands you on the desert island. Ignore the time you're out there living on sushi and coconuts. Think, instead, about coming home. Full Story 

  • Brother Can You Spare A Dime? A Quarter?

    By Ross Ramsey

    Looking for a newspaper clip on the Internet the other day, we stumbled on what appeared to be the story we sought. It was about Gov. Rick Perry telling a Tyler audience about the prospects for a special session of the Legislature. But instead of what we expected — an account of Perry's efforts to negotiate a deal the House and Senate could swallow — it said Perry had given up trying to solve school finance until legislative leaders had a viable plan. Full Story 

  • The Bell Lap

    By Ross Ramsey

    The formula here is just as it was at the beginning of the session: Failure to get results on school finance and property cuts would be horrible news for Rick Perry, less troubling for David Dewhurst and Tom Craddick, and of very little political consequence to the average member of the Texas Legislature. Full Story 

  • Don't Say 'Boom'

    By Ross Ramsey

    Until this is over, it'll be impossible to say whether legislative leaders sent their tax and education bills to conference committees or to bomb squads. Full Story 

  • Convergence, or Something Like It

    By Ross Ramsey

    The Texas Senate dropped its state property tax, overhauled its overhaul of business taxes, and approved a school finance bill more in line with what the Texas House approved earlier this year. Big differences remain to be worked out in that package, and also in companion legislation that includes some school finance and some new education law. But the Legislature is closer to a deal on school finance now than it was a day, a week, or a year ago. Upgrade the condition of the patient from impossible to merely improbable. That's an improvement, and previous legislatures have overcome bigger differences. Full Story 

  • Who's For It?

    By Ross Ramsey

    Officeholders who weren't in the Pink Building in 1997 are finding out now what George W. Bush found out then: Even when everything appears to be lined up just right, it's almost impossible to pass a tax bill. Full Story 

  • Hoist By Their Own Petard*

    By Ross Ramsey

    Act surprised if you hear much more from the House this session about limiting corporate and union money in elections. An attempt to dynamite that legislation out of a hostile committee backfired badly enough that 50 of the bill's 93 sponsors ducked, either voting against the effort or absenting themselves from the House floor during the vote. On the strength of a 95-36 vote, it remains in committee. Full Story 

  • High Noon

    By Ross Ramsey

    The legislative session is reaching a point that's as reliable as the lunch horn in a factory: That moment when it appears that everything is definitely-for-sure-absolutely-certainly going to fall to pieces. Or not. Full Story