Thanks for meeting up with Texas Watchdog Saturday (with...
Rated • 1 review • government, politics, journalism • texaswatchdog.org
Thanks to all who came out to the Texas Watchdog meet-up at the Stag's Head Pub Saturday.
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Texas Watchdog is a person from Houston, Texas, USA
A nonprofit online newspaper covering local and state government in Houston, Texas. We're at http://www.texaswatchdog.org.
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Texas Workforce Commission official who coached...
Rated • 1 review • government, politics • texaswatchdog.org
A state official who had advised Texas businesses how to skirt paying workers' benefits was later promoted to division director at the Texas Workforce Commission.
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Prison beds increase, just months after Texas state...
Rated • 1 review • crime, government, politics • texaswatchdog.org
Shrinking the size of government is like popping a water balloon with one hand.
Take the closing of a state prison over the summer, part of a $60 million prison spending reduction for which the Legislature could not stop congratulating themselves. Think of all those millions of dollars in tax savings not having to fill those more than 1,000 beds, they said, some of them, no doubt, already spending the money someplace else in their minds.
They never got the chance.
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Dallas ISD acknowledges inappropriate contact from...
Rated • 1 review • government, education, politics • texaswatchdog.org
When the Dallas Independent School District yanked a $40 million technology contract from local company Delcom and handed it to Prime Systems, a Houston company, a legal battle ensued.
While that's not so unusual, a report from Brett Shipp of WFAA in Dallas is. It features videotaped depositions that indicate that Dallas ISD acted illegally.
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Univ. of Texas professor wants creationist group off...
Rated • 1 review • government, education, politics, science, higher education • texaswatchdog.org
Please take a little time out of your day today to privately thank University of Texas Prof. David Hillis for blowing the lid off of this whole sordid business of state employees contributing to questionable charities through payroll deductions.
Hillis, in a fit of high academic dudgeon, is demanding the State Policy Committee demand the State Employee Charitable Campaign drop the Institute for Creation Research from its donations list, according to a story today by the Austin American-Statesman.
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Public pension liabilities at $28,000 per household in...
Rated • 1 review • government, politics • texaswatchdog.org
The average Dallas family carries an added liability and debt burden of more than $28,000 because the city and state aren't fully funding the city's pension plan for its employees and retirees. And Dallas is a relative bright spot.
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Special taxing districts - like the Montrose Management...
Rated • 1 review • government, politics, journalism, houston • texaswatchdog.org
You may have seen Texas Watchdog reporter Steve Millerâ€s story this week on a Houston taxing district that just wonâ€t go away -- and its deep connections to Mayor Annise Parker.
Special taxing districts arenâ€t going away any time soon, though. And, in fact, they are a major growth industry in Texas.
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Presidential hopefuls - Texas Gov. Rick Perry included -...
Rated • 1 review • government, politics • texaswatchdog.org
A summary of the actual practice of sunshine on government by presidential contenders from the Associated Press points out that Texas Gov. Rick Perry, a well as Mitt Romney and President Barack Obama, "have limited, stalled or denied access when it suited their purposes."
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Texas state Sen. Kel Seliger floats proposal for more...
Rated • 1 review • government, politics • texaswatchdog.org
One imagines state Sen. Kel Seliger fresh from a trip to the federal court woodshed, alone in a garret, candle dim, the floor a pool of wadded paper, his pencil worn to a nubbin.
At last, I have it, the chief draftsman of the Legislature's currently discredited redistricting maps, tells the Austin American-Statesman today. What Texans need is more state senators.
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Texas windstorm agency plans for raises totaling...
Rated • 1 review • government, insurance, politics, texas • texaswatchdog.org
Department chiefs at the Texas Windstorm Insurance Association have been told to budget for an average of 3 percent pay increases at the troubled agency, which was taken over by the state in February when it was deemed unfit to carry on with business.
General Manager John Polak told supervisors in an Aug. 18 memo, "An average salary increase of 3% should be included in your salary calculations effective January 1, 2012."
That average increase amounts to about $336,000 total based on TWIA's payroll of $11.2 million for 2010, the latest year available.