Analysis: These Texas candidates are about to find out what they’ve really won!
The campaigns were long and hard, and now we know the winners. Let's look at what they're in for once they take office in 2019. Full Story
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![Texas House members huddled near the dais on Aug. 15, 2017. The House adjourned sine die one day before the Legislature's special session would have been forced to conclude.]()
Credit: Marjorie Kamys Cotera -
Legislative report: Harvey recovery has cost $2.7 billion so far — most paid by feds
A report released Friday by the Texas Senate's budget-writing committee laid out past and future costs related to recovery from "the most costly disaster ever to hit the Texas coast." Full Story
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![Rockport business owners said they faced a labor shortage as apartments and affordable rentals have not been rebuilt after Harvey.]()
Credit: Shelby Knowles for The Texas Tribune -
With record $12.5 billion in Texas' savings account, lawmakers set $7.5 billion minimum balance
The decision means Texas can invest more of its massive rainy day fund — and signals lawmakers' confidence that the current balance is healthy. Full Story
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![State Sen. Jane Nelson, R-Flower Mound, explains the benefits of Senate Bill 19 during a Saturday meeting of the Senate Finance Committee on July 22, 2017.]()
Credit: Bob Daemmrich for the Texas Tribune -
Analysis: Is ending a tax break easier to swallow than a tax hike?
Lawmakers looking to realign the state's public school finances while also cutting local property taxes can't do both without a lot of money. They don't want to raise taxes, but they have nearly $60 billion in annual tax exemptions that might provide a solution. Full Story
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![State Comptroller Glenn Hegar presents the Biennial Revenue Estimate to waiting legislators, state officials and the press on January 9, 2017. Hegar predicts a tight budget with falling revenue from Texas oil and gas production and sales taxes.]()
Credit: Bob Daemmrich for The Texas Tribune -
Texas lawmakers punt on setting a spending cap for 2019 session
House Speaker Joe Straus said the unusual decision was meant to ensure lawmakers didn't rush to a decision they might "regret." Full Story
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![U.S. Rep. Dennis Bonnen, R-Angleton (left), and outgoing House Speaker Joe Straus, R-San Antonio, at a Legislative Budget Board meeting in Austin on Friday, Nov. 16, 2018.]()
Credit: Bob Daemmrich for The Texas Tribune -
Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar and Democratic challenger Joi Chevalier talk about why they deserve your vote
In separate interviews, Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar, a Republican who's running for re-election, and Joi Chevalier, his Democratic opponent, talked about the state's looming pension crisis, whether lawmakers should cut taxes and what's in store for the Rainy Day Fund. Full Story
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![Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar and his Democratic opponent, Joi Chevalier.]()
Credit: Steve Moakley: Hegar/Bob Daemmrich: Chevalier -
Analysis: Texas’ school finance problem in one pesky chart
A fresh update of a single budget chart shows who's paying for public education in Texas: More than half of the money comes from local property taxpayers, just over a third comes from the state, and the federal government spends about a dime of every dollar schools cost. Full Story
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![The Texas Legislative Budget Board, including House Speaker Joe Straus, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and state Sen. Jane Nelson, on Dec. 1, 2016.]()
Credit: Laura Skelding for The Texas Tribune -
Analysis: Property taxes rise, state education spending falls. That's the design.
Early discussions about the next state budget include an old and politically hazardous debate: Property values are rising, meaning the local share of education spending will rise while the state share drops. Full Story
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![Texas Education Agency Commissioner Mike Morath testifies before the Texas Commission on Public School Finance about education outcomes on Jan. 23, 2018.]()
Credit: Bob Daemmrich for the Texas Tribune -
Analysis: How to turn a weak Texas governor’s office into a strong one
Gov. Greg Abbott, continuing a quiet project started by his predecessor, is making his office more powerful — at the Texas Legislature's expense. Full Story
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![Gov. Greg Abbott gives the keynote speech at the Republican Party of Texas convention in San Antonio on June 15, 2018.]()
Credit: Bob Daemmrich for The Texas Tribune -
Analysis: For hints to next year’s fights at the Texas Capitol, watch the investment advisers
Editor's note: If you'd like an email notice whenever we publish Ross Ramsey's column, click here. The political debates of this election year will foreshadow some of the issues you'll see when the Texas Legislature meets next year, but some of the best clues — sports gambling is one example — come from the financial advisers to public sector investors. Full Story
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![A football match between Texas A&M and Prairie View A&M on Saturday, Sept. 10, 2016. Texas A&M won 67-0. Prairie View got $450,000 for showing up.]()
Credit: Courtesy, Texas A&M Athletics -
Analysis: Texas is finding a new way to call itself a red state
Glenn Hegar, the state's comptroller of public accounts, is warning lawmakers that Texas' bond ratings are at risk because of a couple of pending expensive problems. That's just the tip of the iceberg. Full Story
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![Texas State Comptroller Glenn Hegar discusses the sources of state revenue as he presents the Biennial Revenue Estimate at the Texas Capitol on Jan. 9, 2017.]()
Credit: Bob Daemmrich for The Texas Tribune -
Texas government risks credit rating downgrade, Comptroller Glenn Hegar says
Without an infusion of new money to cover mounting liabilities, Hegar warned, credit agencies are likely to downgrade Texas’ credit rating, which would make it more expensive for the state to borrow money — and perhaps damage the state's business climate. Full Story
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![Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar]()
Credit: Bob Daemmrich -
Despite sunny economy, Texas budget forecast is dreary
Though unemployment is low and tax revenue is on the rise, big bills coming due for the state’s highways and health care programs are giving Texas lawmakers some heartburn. Full Story
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![Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar announces his office has picked a private vendor to run the Texas Bullion Depository, which will be designed to store gold for both the state and private citizens, at the Capitol on June 14, 2017.]()
Credit: Marjorie Kamys Cotera for The Texas Tribune -
Analysis: Texas’ most persistent policy problem
You wouldn’t be out of line wondering why Texas school finance didn’t get fixed in 2017. Or 2015. Or 2013. But it’s because this is a hard policy problem and a harder political one. The prompt now is that property taxes have gotten so far out of hand that lawmakers have no choice but to act. Full Story
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![State Sen. Larry Taylor, R-Friendswood, l, chats at the lunch break with chairman Justice Scott Brister at the Texas Commission on School Finance meeting on Jan. 23, 2018.]()
Credit: Bob Daemmrich for the Texas Tribune -
Criticism builds for Texas DPS decision to lay off 117 older officers
The Texas Department of Public Safety is feeling the heat over a budget-related decision to lay off 117 officers serving in a retire/rehire program. Full Story
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![Texas Department of Public Safety recruit graduation class on April 7th, 2011 in Austin, Texas]()
Credit: Marjorie Kamys Cotera -
Analysis: Texas has more than one problem with government rats
The infestation of Norwegian rats in a state building where health regulators work is not only a big, embarrassing mess — it's a metaphor for a persistent problem in Texas government. Full Story
Credit: Illustration by Emily Albracht/Laura Skelding -
How Texas curtailed traditional welfare without ending poverty
Though poverty rates have remained consistent, Texas has significantly reduced the traditional welfare it provides to poor Texans through cash assistance over the last two decades. Full Story
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![Central Texas Food Bank Social Services Coordinator Eddie Sanchez meets with a client at Central Health Southeast Health and Wellness Center in Austin on Nov. 29, 2017]()
Credit: Marjorie Kamys Cotera for The Texas Tribune -
Texas health regulators overrun by "several hundred" rats at Austin headquarters
The Texas Health and Human Services Commission has a $60,000 vermin problem, and is hiring private exterminators to deal with an estimated "several hundred" sewer rats in the building. Full Story
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Credit: Illustration by Jacob Villanueva/Laura Skelding -
Analysis: The line for money at the Texas Capitol just got longer
The Texas Legislature's list of things to do in 2019 is already piling up, and it was an expensive set of chores before anyone ever heard of Hurricane Harvey. Full Story
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![The Senate chamber at the Texas Capitol on Aug. 16, 2017, the morning after the end of the special session.]()
Credit: Austin Price/The Texas Tribune -
With two days left in special session, comptroller finds extra $196 million
Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar on Tuesday delivered some welcome news to weary state lawmakers: Their coffers should be richer than he previously anticipated. Full Story
![State Comptroller Glenn Hegar presents the Biennial Revenue Estimate to waiting legislators, state officials and the press on January 9, 2017. Hegar predicts a tight budget with falling revenue from Texas oil and gas production and sales taxes.]()
Credit: Bob Daemmrich for The Texas Tribune
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