Thursday, January 7, 2016

After the Fall: How will TEXAS PROTECT IT'S CITIZENS after a NATIONAL DEBT CRISIS?!?


"Prepare your outside work,
Make it fit for yourself in the field;
And afterward build your house."
Proverbs 24:27

TPPF Policy Orientation: How can Texas untangle its state finances from the Feds?!?

Susan Combs (Former Texas Comptroller):
  • Proposed local govt. debt transparency bill in 2013 session.
  • TelltheTruthTexas.org
  • Special purpose district are proliferating across the state.
  • School construction report: Made them REALLY mad!!!
  • "They think we're too dumb to know but just smart enough to pay."
  • "It's our money."
  • "There's no excuse, in 2016, for everything not to be on the internet."
  • Find a few really stupid Federal grants every year and TURN THEM DOWN!!!
Rep. Matt Krause (R - Tarrant County):
  • There's very little way to track how much Federal $$ is going to local govts.
  • The ability to not have transparency is something people want to hold onto.
  • HB 3606.
  • "If something is going to crash at the federal level, Texas is going to be on the hook for _________________________"?!?
  • Fiscal risk management commission: Figure out what Texas needs to do to prepare in case things go to heck at the Federal level.
  • "Texas has to be prepared to take care of its citizens."
  • You can't tell the Feds "come and take it" then say "but thank you for the $800 million over here."
  • "Open to" an effort to allow state of Texas to accept BITCOIN for purposes of paying taxes.
    • Author's Note: We only got this idea this morning, more for the purposes of undermining the Federal Reserve than dealing with the Federal Government's fiscal excesses, but we can see value in this idea for both purposes.
Mario Loyola (TPPF):
  • Feds have roped the states into their fiscal problems.
  • Approx. 35% of state budgets consist of Federal funds.
    • "Conditional grants in aid."
  • It's a fiction that states can turn down Federal money without coercion.
  • Every year the Feds transfer about 3% of GDP to the states.
  • Federal grants to the states are a de facto state income tax.
  • A coalition of uncompetitive progressive states controls to the Federal govt and uses it to hold back conservative states.
  • "The separation of Federal and State governments has been lost."

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