TEXAS JOURNAL --- Texas' Big Growth Area: Government Spending
Is Texas in the thrall of tax-and-spend politicians?</br></br>In a recent column, we examined how the rise in taxes over the past decade or so is threatening to undo the state's hard-won reputation as a tax haven, and is making Texas look a lot more like, say, Ohio.</br></br>Now, for the other side of the coin, so to speak: spending.</br></br>From 1980 to 1991, the latest year for which comprehensive figures are available, Texas government expenditures rose much faster than the national average. Adjusted for inflation, Texas spending jumped 56% during the period, compared with an increase of 48% for the average state, according to a new study by the conservative Texas Public Policy Foundation in San Antonio.</br></br>The study, co-authored by the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank in Washington, D.C., paints a picture of state spending run amok. The report says that as "one of the more profligate states," Texas has seen a surge in spending on such things as state employees, welfare and interest on debt -- in some cases, at a rate nearly double the national average.