Texas PolicyCast: Cost drivers in Texas higher education

With tuition at Texas public universities surging over the last several years, it's natural that the issue who attract considerable attention from parents, students, and legislators. But who is paying attention to the underlying problem of university operating costs? In this week's episode, Elizabeth Young, higher education policy analyst at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, goes through some of the major cost drivers in Texas higher education and lists some of the free-market policy solutions that would bring these costs back in line.

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Texas PolicyCast: Abolishing the school property tax

Because of the substantial burden imposed by property taxes, the lack of a rational link between school property taxes and educational services, and the constitutional complexities surrounding the school property tax, many believe it is time to eliminate property taxes altogether. One of them is State Rep. Phil King of Weatherford, who has filed House Joint Resolution 97, which would abolish the maintenance and operations school property tax by 2014 and force the legislature to find a fairer method to pay for public schools. He discusses his proposal with us this week.

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Texas PolicyCast: New taxes on the fast track

Texans are beginning to feel the pain of the national recession and a cooling state economy. The Federal Reserve recently updated its forecast and said Texas could lose nearly 300,000 jobs this year, with an unemployment rate upwards of 8 percent. Perfect time for a massive tax increase? Sadly, several of our state legislators seem to think so. We look at the push for new regional transportation taxes with Justin Keener, vice president of policy and communications at the Texas Public Policy Foundation.

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Texas PolicyCast: The California Disaster Avoidance Plan

Last week, Rep. Ken Paxton of McKinney and Sen. Dan Patrick of Houston held a press conference to announce the filing of House Bill 994 and Senate Bill 928, both of which seek to tighten the state's expenditure limit. We caught up with Rep. Paxton after the event to get his perspective on the legislation.

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TPPF’s Guenthner honored with 2009 Texas Social Media Award

Austin American-Statesman selects Guenthner as one of the top 25 social media users in Texas

AUSTIN – The Texas Public Policy Foundation is pleased to announce that David Guenthner, its Director for Media and Government Relations, has been selected as one of the inaugural recipients of the Texas Social Media Awards.

"Communication technologies and techniques are changing rapidly," said Justin Keener, the Foundation’s Vice President of Policy and Communications. "David has done a great job of finding new tools and incorporating them into our outreach programs so that we can share our message with more people. We are thrilled that he has received this well-deserved recognition."

Guenthner is the host and producer of "Texas PolicyCast," the Foundation’s weekly podcast. Texas PolicyCast was downloaded more than 220,000 times last year. He manages the Foundation’s "Speaking Freely" blog and is a contributor at HoustonConservative.com.

During the last several months, Guenthner has developed new programs for online reputation management and blog outreach and overseen the development of the Foundation’s Facebook page. He has actively promoted the Foundation’s research through Twitter and provided tutorials for legislators, activists, and other opinion leaders on how to use the service.

"For 20 years, the free-market movement has looked to the Texas Public Policy Foundation for leadership on the key public policy issues affecting our state and nation," Keener said. "David has played a key role in delivering our message across Texas and the nation, predicting and responding to the evolution in how people gather and share information, and this award validates his contribution and effectiveness."

The Texas Social Media Awards are sponsored by the Austin American-Statesman. A panel at the American-Statesman selected the 25 winners from 125 nominees submitted by the readers of Statesman.com. Guenthner will receive his award at a March 15th award ceremony.

David Guenthner is Director of Media and Government Relations for the Texas Public Policy Foundation.

The Texas Public Policy Foundation is a non-profit, non-partisan, free-market research institute based in Austin. More information can be found on the Foundation’s primary website, www.TexasPolicy.com, or its government spending transparency website, www.TexasBudgetSource.com.

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Texas PolicyCast: A blueprint for an effective state budget

On Wednesday, the Texas Public Policy Foundation joined with several other research, business and taxpayer organizations to issue "Blueprint for an Effective State Budget," a statement intended to guide legislators through the difficult budget decisions they will have to make during the next few months. This week, we discuss the blueprint with one of its primary architects, The Honorable Talmadge Heflin, Director of the Center for Fiscal Policy at the Texas Public Policy Foundation and former Chairman of the Texas House Appropriations Committee.

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Texas PolicyCast: California emissions in Texas?

Could California emissions standards be on their way to Texas? A recent decision by the Obama Administration could open the door to states being allowed to set their own vehicle emissions and fuel economy standards that are even more stringent than current federal law. What would this mean for Texas? We ask Kathleen Hartnett White, Director of the Center for Natural Resources at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, and the former chair of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.

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Texas PolicyCast: Part 1 - Legislative session preview with Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst

The regular session of the 81st Texas Legislature is now underway in Austin. This week and next, we will bring you a two-part conversation with Texas Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst on the session's key issues. In this episode, we focus on the state's budget and finances.

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Texas PolicyCast: 2008 in review

This week, we are pleased to bring you a roundtable discussion featuring the policy team at the Texas Public Policy Foundation looking back at 2008 and previewing the 81st Texas Legislature.

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Texas PolicyCast: Opening Texas' books

Texas has set the national standard for government financial transparency, thanks in large part to the leadership of the state's Comptroller of Public Accounts, Susan Combs. Her agency's "Where the Money Goes" website lets you see how state agencies are spending your money - right down to the pencil. And last week, Combs unveiled Open Book Texas, an initiative that will provide an even more comprehensive view of government spending, and she discusses it with us on this episode.

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Texas PolicyCast: Capped out of charter schools

In August, the Texas Public Policy Foundation published a report that found that tens of thousands of school children were on waiting lists to attend Texas charter schools. Last month, the State Board of Education granted the final charters it is allowed under current law. What does the future hold for charter schools and these children? For that, we talk with Brooke Terry, education policy analyst at the Texas Public Policy Foundation.

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Texas PolicyCast: Monopolies or markets?

On Monday, the Texas Public Policy Foundation hosted "Monopolies or Markets? How to Power Economic Growth," a Policy Primer on electric deregulation. During his keynote remarks, House Regulated Industries Committee Chairman Phil King discussed Texas' successful transition to a competitive electric market and what should be done to keep Texas on the path toward energy independence. We caught up with Chairman King following the event for this conversation on the Texas electric market.

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Texas PolicyCast: A change in climate for climate change policy

With a new president taking office in January, could 2009 be the year that the environmental movement gets its climate change legislation? Kathleen Hartnett White, Director of the Foundation's Center for Natural Resources and former Chair of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, has written a new commentary in which she lists six reasons why that might not be the case. She goes through them with us on this week's PolicyCast.

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Texas PolicyCast: Measuring performance in the juvenile justice system

The Texas Youth Commission and the Texas Juvenile Probation Commission are among the state agencies currently going through the Sunset Advisory Commission review process. This week, Marc Levin, Director of the Foundation's Center for Effective Justice, published a Policy Perspective that recommends that these agencies' performance measures be enhanced to focus more on results than volume. Marc discusses his report with us this week.

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Texas PolicyCast: Paying for results

Teacher incentive pay programs in Texas school districts have produced higher test scores, higher state accountability rankings, improved teacher morale, and less teacher turnover. This according to a new report released this week by the Texas Public Policy Foundation, with generous support from the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation. On this edition of Texas PolicyCast, we talk with the report's author, Texas Public Policy Foundation education policy analyst Brooke Terry, about the history and role of incentive pay in Texas public schools.

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Texas PolicyCast: The Dallas ISD debacle

The problems afflicting our public schools are well chronicled - dropout rates are staggering and much higher than officially reported, and of the students who do get their diplomas, a growing number of them require remedial education before they can start their college coursework. Unfortunately, there's another problem you can add to the list - financial mismanagement of taxpayer dollars. The latest and highest profile example is Dallas ISD, which is struggling to remedy a $64 million cost overrun from last year and an $84 million budget deficit this year - both of which were just discovered. To talk about the situation and what needs to be done to fix it and prevent it from happening in other districts, we have James Quintero and The Honorable Talmadge Heflin from the Center for Fiscal Policy at the Texas Public Policy Foundation.

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Texas PolicyCast: Bailing out on freedom

This week, Congress is considering a financial system bailout that would give the U.S. Treasury Secretary the authority to buy up to $700 billion of bad debt off of Wall Street balance sheets. But will this plan shore up our wobbly economy and calm our turbulent credit markets, or will it kill the value of the dollar and set off a vicious inflation spiral? And even more importantly, what effect will this plan have on our freedom? To probe these questions, we bring you a conversation with Jeff Sandefer, president of Sandefer Capital Partners, teacher at the Acton School Business, and a member of the Texas Public Policy Foundation board of directors.

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Texas PolicyCast: Katrina, Three Years Later

This month marks the third anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, one of the most devastating natural disasters in American history. In the aftermath of the storm, the Mercatus Center at George Mason University launched a five-year project to follow the long-term redevelopment of the Gulf Coast after Katrina. Last week, Mercatus published a compilation of its research to date, entitled "Is the Gulf Coast Open for Business?" Joining us this week to discuss the findings is Daniel Rothschild, Associate Director of Mercatus' Global Prosperity Initiative.

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First Listen: Texas PolicyCast interview with The Honorable Barry Goldwater, Jr.

The late Senator Barry Goldwater is one of the iconic figures in the conservative movement. A new book, Pure Goldwater, looks at the senator's life, career, and beliefs through a new prism - that of his own writings. Barry Goldwater, Jr., the senator's son and himself a former seven-term congressman from California, worked with John Dean to organize the senator's journals and letters into a compelling personal portrait. This week, we present a conversation with Barry Goldwater, Jr., recorded shortly before his keynote remarks at the Americans for Prosperity/Right Online "Defending the American Dream Summit" in Austin.

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First Listen: Texas PolicyCast interview with Robert Novak

Nationally syndicated columnist Robert Novak is widely regarded as the dean of conservative journalists, having covered and commented on national politics for more than half a century. He was in Austin last weekend for the Americans for Prosperity/Right Online "Defending the American Dream Summit," and we caught up with him to get his thoughts on the state of the conservative movement and the current presidential campaign.

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Texas PolicyCast: A History of Lawsuit Reform in Texas, Part 1

Last month, the Texas Public Policy Foundation released the report, "A History of Lawsuit Reform in Texas," authored by TPPF Senior Fellow, The Honorable Joe Nixon. Besides being an accomplished litigator, Nixon served six terms in the Texas House of Representatives, the last two as Chairman of its Civil Practices Committee. In this two-part interview, we look at the evolution of Texas' civil justice system and the actions taken in recent years to strike a fairer balance between plaintiffs and defendants.

The Texas PolicyCast is the weekly audio magazine of the Texas Public Policy Foundation. A new edition is posted each Thursday morning. To listen to the current or previous editions online, please visit the Texas PolicyCast page at www.TexasPolicy.com. You can also subscribe using your RSS reader or iTunes.

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