Lawmakers have said it before, and today they said it again: Sweeping top-down change is needed within the Texas Department of Transportation.
Economy
Get the latest on jobs, business, growth, and policy shaping the state’s economy with in-depth reporting from The Texas Tribune.
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Demographics
TribBlog: Immigrant Application Fees Could Rise
Citing budget cuts and a decline is revenue, the USCIS is proposing fee increases for more than two dozen immigration-related documents.
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Economy
TribBlog: A Taxing Problem
The state’s tax on corporations could end up half a billion dollars shy of Comptroller Susan Combs’ predictions, officials with her office say.
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Economy
TribBlog: The 10 Percent Solution
Fresh off of asking for five percent cuts from state agencies and actually approving $1.2 billion of what was proposed, the state’s top three leaders are asking for ten percent cuts in the amounts the agencies will be seeking next time the Legislature meets.
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University of Texas/Texas Tribune Polls
We Like It Better Here
A majority of Texans believe the state is on the right track, while a plurality thinks the country is on the wrong track, according to a new University of Texas/Texas Tribune Poll.
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Economy
TribBlog: Texans Back Casino Gambling, Oppose Taxes
A new Rasmussen Reports poll finds that 57 percent of Texans favor legalizing casino gambling as a means to draw down the coming budget shortfall, but only 21 percent support higher taxes.
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Economy
A Lousy Grade
More than two-thirds of Texans say their confidence in the state’s public schools ranges from shaky to nonexistent, according to the new University of Texas/Texas Tribune poll. A majority of Texans believe that crime, low academic standards, lack of parental involvement and not enough funding are “major” problems that public schools face — but two-thirds say “too much religion in the schools” is not a problem.
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Economy
TribBlog: Gambling 101
Coming soon to a large pink state capitol building in this very state: A day-long seminar on slot machines and casinos and all that, especially as it pertains to the state budget.
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Economy
Work in Progress
The latest employment numbers show that more Texans than ever before have jobs, but the state is still struggling with its highest unemployment rate since 1987. Ben Philpott of KUT News and the Tribune reports on the good and bad news in the latest stats.
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Economy
TribBlog: Unemployment Up, But So is Employment
The number of Texans working was up in April, but so was the number of people looking for work.