- TxDOT to pay new execs $250,000 or more – Ben Wear, Austin American-Statesman
- 'Toothless,' secretive Texas Ethics Commission fails the public – Mark Lisheron, Texas Watchdog
- Politico: Cruz lashes group wife belonged to; Roll Call disses Leppert, Jones – Robert Garrett, Trail Blazers Blog
- Patterson asks board to move ahead on Confederate license plate – Mike Ward, Austin American-Statesman
- Prop. 3 would extend the student loan crisis – Blue Dot Blues
- 'At some point you can't cut your way to prosperity,' Straus says – Jason Embry, First Reading
I think MQS’s head might have just exploded.
Quite likely. Too bad Embry didn’t replace his opinion about Sullivan’s head with an actual quote.
- High poverty, low welfare use in Texas – Mark Lisheron, Texas Watchdog
The findings might indicate there is less real need for public assistance, or it might mean those states are doing a bad job reaching the people who need government help, Elizabeth Lower-Basch with the Center for Law and Social Policy told Stateline.
Once established, of course, social welfare bureaucracies exist to expand their reach (and their consumption of taxpayer resources), so those states even mildly resistant to this sort of expansion of government surely do draw criticism from the likes of Ms. Lower-Basch for their *ahem* “outreach” efforts.
- The Anatomy of an Establishment Hustle – Weston Hicks, AgendaWise Reports
The education hustle is on in the Texas ruling class. Really, it’s the same play they used during the session to try to break Texans will to hold the line on taxes and spending, and to create will to expand gambling.
- School Dropouts Save Texas Money But Only in Short Term – Ross Ramsey, Texas Tribune
- Reality bites for College of Liberal Arts student – Blue Dot Blues
- A Supply-Side Strategy for Lowering Abortion Rates – Michael J. New, NRO
However, a recent article in The New England Journal of Medicine shows that supply-side strategies — strategies aimed at reducing the number of abortion providers — also have promise for lowering abortion rates. The article analyzes the impact of a Texas law which required that all abortions which take place at or after 16 weeks of gestation be performed in either a hospital or an ambulatory surgical center. Ambulatory surgical centers must adhere to more rigorous staffing, reporting, and facility structure requirements than free-standing abortion clinics.
When the Texas law took effect, none of Texas’s non-hospital-based abortion providers met the requirements for an ambulatory surgical center. As such, the average distance to the non-hospital-based abortion provider which performed abortions after 16 weeks increased from 33 miles to 252 miles. Not surprisingly, the number of abortions performed in Texas at or after 16 weeks of gestation fell by 88 percent. While there was an increase in the number of Texas residents seeking late-term abortions in other states, the out-of-state increase did not offset the in-state decline. Tthe year the law took effect saw over 2,000 fewer late-term abortions (both in-state and out-of-state) performed on Texas residents.
The article contrasts this supply-side law to a demand-side law, specifically the Texas informed-consent laws which went into effect in January 2004.
- How Much Ivory Does This Tower Need? What We Spend on, and Get from, Higher Education – Neal McCluskey, Cato Institute
Interesting reading for the defenders of the higher ed status quo in Texas.
But the immediate result is that the dropouts save money. And politicians respond to immediate things. Not to kick anyone in particular, but when was the last time you saw a Texas governor or legislator with a 10-year plan? A five-year plan?
When the economy is bad and the favored political trope is no new taxes, no new spending, budgeting is a short-term exercise. Lawmakers stop talking about new programs and such….
It is not the most effective rhetorical device to deny doing exactly what you are about to do (in this case, kicking unnamed pols who have run this state for an unnamed period — so subtle!).
LibDem activist/megadonor and Tribune co-founder John Thornton, now retired *wink* from politics, must be happy with his child’s progress of late!