Reducing property taxes for homeowners has become popular in red states. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is backing a plan to phase out non-school property taxes. As a part of his re-election campaign, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is proposing a constitutional amendment to eliminate school district property taxes for homeowners along with four other measures to…
Last week, Texas officials announced that the state spent more than $1 billion on health care for “illegal immigrants” in fiscal year 2025. This article on FoxNews.com provides us with a slew of statistics to show the financial burden immigrants are imposing on Texas taxpayers. A billion dollars is a lot of money, but it…
In announcing new tariffs on China, Evader-in-Chief Donald Trump again showed that he believes reality will conform to his wishes. Tariffs won’t make America great. They never have, and they never will. Contrary to Trump’s claims, trade does not occur between nations. America does not engage in trade with China or any other nation. Individual…
The City Council of Knoxville, Tennessee is considering a property tax freeze for some apartment owners. Property owners who choose to participate in the program will be encouraged to keep rents affordable for low- and moderate-income households. Given that property taxes can be one of a landlord’s biggest expenses, this proposal could provide significant relief…
A growing movement is underway to impose a global minimum tax of 2 percent on the world’s 2,700 billionaires. This would raise an estimated $250 billion annually. One stated purpose of the movement is to “clampdown on tax evasion.” In truth, such a tax would be akin to eating the seed corn. To eat the…
In 2015, Hennepin County, Minnesota, seized a condominium for $15,000 in unpaid property taxes. A year later, the condominium was sold for $40,000. The county kept all of the money in an act that many call home equity theft. The condo owner sued and the US Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit ruled for…
For years, Californians have been fleeing the state’s outrageously high taxes and draconian regulations. Many have settled in Texas, where both taxes and business regulations are generally less onerous. Interestingly, the Texas state capital, Austin, will soon become an unofficial part of California. A report by Zillow finds that, by the end of this year,…
Politicians can sometimes be rather creative in finding new ways to coerce individuals to act as the politicians’ desire. And they can be equally creative in how they present their schemes to the public. Several Canadian cities provide an interesting example of this. Following the lead of Vancouver, both Hamilton and Ottawa are considering a…
Legislators across the country are scrambling to develop policies that will lead to more affordable housing. (Affordable housing means that a family is paying 30 percent or less of its income on housing.) One of the most popular schemes is to provide tax credits for developers who agree to set aside a percentage of their…
Last week, Rep. Tulsi Gabbard announced that she is in favor of injustice and introduced the Pandemic Crisis Excess Profits Tax. In a press release, she said that the tax would be a limited-time tax on the excess profits of large corporations who profited beyond their average profits over the past several years due to…
Last Friday, the Commander in Chief of the United States sent forth several tweets in response to China’s announcement that it would impose $75 billion in tariffs on American products. In one of those tweets, the Commander stated: Our great American companies are hereby ordered to immediately start looking for an alternative to China, including…
According to Politico, the budget passed by the Texas Legislature in the recent session establishes new metrics for evaluating school success rates that shift focus away from “performance statistics,” such as standardized test scores, and toward “success statistics,” like graduation rates, enrollment rates in post-secondary education like college or vocational school, and estimated income of…