With energy and ideas from first-time legislators and lots of newly engaged Texans, we're at the beginning of an exciting and critically important Texas legislative session. Now is the time for Texas to invest in our most valuable resource — our own people.
We will always count on the resilience of the Texas spirit in hard times. As Hurricane Harvey taught us, though, Texans must also be able to count on public infrastructure and investments — to help us recover from disasters and to ensure a prosperous future for all Texans.
After 29 bonus days at the Texas Capitol, lawmakers headed back to their districts without having accomplished much. That’s good news, because Gov. Greg Abbott’s 20 priorities mostly would have harmed Texans.
Lawmakers had plenty of opportunities to adopt solutions that would have improved the lives of Texans. But instead of focusing on the real challenges facing our state, they were busy crafting discriminatory responses to manufactured problems.
With emotions particularly high this year, Texans from both ends of the political spectrum are spending a lot of time demonizing each other. But are we really so different than our neighbors?
A troubling new economic forecast and continued concerns about oil and gas revenues are exposing the underbelly of the "Texas Miracle."
Hard work and leadership prevented my worst nightmares about the 2015 session from coming true, but lawmakers still failed to deliver the policy solutions that Texans need.
It's easy to tune out what's happening at the state Capitol if you live outside of Austin. But all Texans should listen up, because more tax breaks will mean less revenue for our growing cities and counties.
Some ideologues are calling for an artificially low state spending limit that would tie the hands of legislators. We should give our leaders the freedom to make smart decisions about our state's real needs.
The lack of female politicians in Texas isn’t just a symbolic problem. Female legislators from both parties are more likely to prioritize issues important to women and families, and that’s vital in a state where so many of them are struggling.
Sure it can, but not if most Texans are poor, sick or uneducated. We need to invest today to be able to compete tomorrow.
