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News Radio Join The Fight Fiscal Index Endorsements Find My Legislators Subscribe Activist Reports Conservative Leaders Request A Speaker Events About Donate Select Page Offices PO Box 248 Leander, TX 78646 PO Box 700981 Dallas, TX 75370 PO Box 12862, Odessa TX 79768 Phone 1-888-410-1836 Texas Scorecard Someone’s always keeping score. We think it ought to be the taxpayers! READ Fiscal Responsibility Index How did your lawmakers perform during the last legislative session? LEARN MORE Action Portal Good public policy only happens when YOU make your voice heard. Join the fight today! TAKE ACTION Our Services Texas Scorecard Fiscal Responsibility Index Texas Torchbearers Action Portal Most Recent at Texas Scorecard On the Record: Lawmakers Discuss Plans to Return to Capitol By Brandon Waltens Texas Scorecard asked lawmakers what measures, if any, they expect or believe should occur in light of the coronavirus. Round Rock Officials Forced to Obey Law After Trying to Postpone Election By Jacob Asmussen After trying to shield themselves from voters for an entire extra year, the Round Rock City Council was forced to reverse their decision. Survey: Legislators Prefer Restricted Access to Capitol During Session By Brandon Waltens Eighty percent support suspending public tours, and 60 percent support curtailing them altogether. Friday Roundup: August 14, 2020 By Friday Roundup Greg Abbott had a no good, very bad summer. Michael Quinn Sullivan and Brandon Waltens discuss this and more. Browning Tops List of Possible GOP Nominees for Dallas Court of Appeals By Erin Anderson Republican precinct chairs from six North Texas counties will choose a judicial nominee on Saturday to replace the late Justice David Bridges on the November ballot. Austin City Council Votes Unanimously to Defund Local Police by One-Third By Jacob Asmussen “Why do [Democrats] value radical politics more than your family’s safety?” Read More News Attend an Event Make A Donation 1836 Campaign Events About Us Empower Texans is a non-profit service organization. Through multiple media formats, we educate and inspire Texans to exercise effective citizenship. Using research, reporting, and advocacy, we empower taxpayers to advocate for good governance and hold their elected officials accountable. Subscribe More... Texas Scorecard Find My Legislators Fiscal Index Request A Speaker Texas Torchbearers Join The Fight Events Social Media Facebook Twitter Instagram LinkedIn RSS Subscribe Get In Touch Contact Us Phone: 888.410.1836 Bureaus Capitol Central Texas Houston Rio Grande Valley Metroplex West Texas Copyright 2018, All rights reserved. Pension Reform Thirteen municipal pension systems in Texas are enshrined in state statute. This means that, locally, Texans across the state are paying taxes into pension systems that they have no control over. Even worse, even the most menial changes to these systems must be approved by the legislature before going into effect. This gives municipalities 140 days every two years to coordinate all stakeholders to push for change. This creates a major problem during times when local governments can’t afford to pay the full actuarial required amount into their pensions systems. Instead of working with their local pension board for temporary resolutions, they either have to go to the legislature for changes or redirect tax dollars from other local projects. Local government entities should have direct governance, and responsibility, for the pensions of their municipal employees. Mayors and city councils shouldn’t have to go to the legislature for minor changes that should be handled locally; adding an extra layer of bureaucratic red tape only limits the potential for constructive change. The state should return control to local entities, as long as the local process proves to be accountable and transparent to taxpayers and municipal employees. Related Articles CLOSE Zero Based Budgeting Traditionally, appropriators in the Texas Legislature utilize what’s commonly referred to as “incremental” budgeting. Under that process, agencies begin at their previous appropriation amount and are provided increases to account for rising costs, population, etc. Such a practice is inherently flawed because it rests on the assumption that the particular agency is running efficiently and revenue is spent appropriately. In addition to enabling waste, fraud, and abuse, the process is also rigid and slow to adapt. The answer to this should be a zero-based budgeting system. Under that process, the state budget is wiped clean every time and is re-calculated as if starting from scratch. That way, departments, agencies, and other government entities find it much tougher to spend your tax dollars inefficiently because they cannot count on current levels of spending to be maintained. By implementing zero-based budgeting, lawmakers could make government smaller and more efficient for taxpayers. Related Articles CLOSE Union Dues Public sector unions in Texas are given the benefit of using taxpayer resources to collect and pay out their members’ dues. Once a government employee joins a public union, the state allows dues to be automatically deducted from employee paychecks and transferred directly to their respective union. In the hands of unions, the funds are primarily utilized to advocate against business-friendly, free market, and pro-taxpayer legislation. By continuing this practice Texas further emboldens unions. In states where union members manually contribute their dues on a regular basis, unions have seen a sharp decline in membership. Government collection of union dues also presents a conflict of interest. State and local officials are charged with negotiating contracts with unions who lobby, donate, and campaign within the same political realm. By abolishing the practice of government-collected union dues, union members would still be able to contribute to associations of their choosing – the cost burden would simply fall on the unions themselves. Taxpayers should not be forced to pay for the collection of funds that are essentially used to lobby against polarized, anti-free market ideals. Related Articles CLOSE Tax-funded Lobbying In a free-market system, customers are often loathe to spend money at businesses that reinvest their profits towards political aspirations they find abhorrent. Unfortunately, no such freedom exists when local governments decide to use your tax dollars to lobby the state legislature. Citizens have little recourse when it comes to paying the taxes decided on by their local officials — and none whatsoever when it comes to how that money is spent. What is most egregious about the practice of tax-funded lobbying is the policy goals these lobbyists seek. As a creation of the state, the legislature is often tasked with reigning in the taxing and regulatory authority abused by runaway local government entities — which is where these hired guns come into play. They lobby your state legislators to oppose things such as protections from tax increases, ballot transparency initiatives, and annexation authority just to name a few. Anything that might prevent these entities from taking more of your hard earned tax dollars — they will spend your money to defeat. Texas taxpayers currently shoulder one of the highest property tax burdens in the nation — coming it at 6 th highest in the U.S. There can be little doubt that tax-funded lobbyists have had a hand in that role — and considering more than half of registered lobbyists are funded by local governments , it’s time to end this fundamentally anti-taxpayer practice. Related Articles CLOSE Spending Limits Since 2004, state spending is up 12 percent beyond population and inflation growth – a testament to the weak spending limit applied to Texas’ budget. Though the state legislature must pass a balanced budget (meaning spending can be no greater than the revenue anticipated), the state constitution and enacting statutes only ...