Since 1979
Job number one for Congress, as I noted in a recent column, is repealing Obamacare. But cutting taxes is a close second.
Of course, the whole system needs an overhaul. We want to unleash economic growth and prosperity. Tax cuts are a crucial first step toward that, but we need full reform to get us across the finish line.
The following editorial originally appeared in the Corpus Christi Caller-Times newspaper.
With the simple act of signing his name, Gov. Greg Abbott completed a trifecta of failure by all branches of state government to defend the people’s right to know.
By Edwin Feulner
President, Heritage Foundation
Almost any time you see the phrase “the American Dream” these days, it seems to be in a negative context. The speaker is either assuring us that it’s dead, or that it can be salvaged only by a radical redefinition — one that often contradicts the basic principles this country was founded on.
By Ling Hwey Jeng, Ph.D., director of the School of Library and Information Studies at Texas Woman’s University and incoming president of the Texas Library Association
Libraries are changing. While traditional activities such as borrowing books or reading still dominate use of libraries, Pew Research Institute studies show the American public today relies on libraries to teach digital skills, provide working spaces and address the disparity among citizens who have or don’t have broadband internet services at home. Libraries also are breaking physical boundaries as they become more embedded in shopping malls, community centers and student unions on college campuses.
By Jon Cassidy
So, you and a couple buddies have gotten control of a school board or a county commission somewhere, you’ve got your guy installed as the chief executive, and you’d like to cash in on your opportunity – send some work to a contractor you know, maybe put a few relatives on the payroll.
By Edwin Feulner
Founder, Heritage Foundation
Ever seen this bumper sticker? “It will be a great day when our schools get all the money they need and the Air Force has to hold a bake sale to buy a bomber.”
by Michael Novotny, Salado ISD Superintendent
Earlier this month, the Salado Historical Society dedicated a new Texas State Historic Commission historical marker at the Salado Civic Center. The marker commemorates the life of Alice Joy Gray Hamblem, who donated the land for a Salado Public School in 1924.
For the following 43 years the “Red Brick Schoolhouse” located at 601 North Main Street was the only school in the district. The student enrollment gradually increased enough to need another building so in 1967 the district opened Thomas Arnold Elementary School. Students in grades seven through twelve remained in the Red Brick Schoolhouse for the next twelve years until the district opened Salado High School (which is now Salado Junior High School).
The Red Brick Schoolhouse was vacant starting in 1979 and the building gradually deteriorated to the point of almost being torn down. However, some community members and Salado High School alumni collected over $500,000 in donations to repair and renovate the building in 1992. The building was then renamed the Salado Civic Center.
The school district continues to own the Salado Civic Center and our central office is located there. Several other organizations have rented space in the building over the last 25 years, including the Salado Chamber of Commerce and Visitor’s Center, the Village of Salado, the Salado Public Library, the Salado Historical Society, and the Texas Association of Private and Parochial Schools (TAPPS). Each of these organizations eventually relocated to another location.
Last month the school district began a seven year lease with Bell County for three of the offices downstairs in the Civic Center. This space is for the five Bell County employees, including Justice of the Peace Don Engleking and Constable Rolly Correa, who were previously leasing space at Horizon Bank.
The Civic Center also has large and small meeting rooms used by many other groups, including the Salado Lions Club, Salado Community Choir, Hidden Springs Homeowners Association, ESL and GED classes, wedding receptions and family reunions.
In addition to recognizing Alice Joy Gray Hamblem for generously donating the land back in 1924,
I would also like to thank the following people that helped restore the Red Brick Schoolhouse into the Salado Civic Center:
Gary Bartlett
Kenyon Clapp
Robert H. Cottle
Suzi Epps
Jessie Foster
Egon Friedrich
Hulda Horton
Denver Mills
Lloyd Parks
Pasty Sanford
Lois Shepperd
Wilma Williams
Helen Zagona
By Edwin Feulner
Founder, Heritage Foundation
A few months ago, news broke of an astounding assault on free speech. No, the media didn’t present it that way, but that’s how some conservatives, myself included, characterized it. And with good reason.
The assault in question came via a group of Democratic attorneys general. This group of 16 had banded together as “AGs United for Clean Power.”
By Jill Richardson
I was sitting on a bus one summer, chatting with a man behind me who’d worked all over the world in the U.S. foreign service. Like many conversations today, ours turned eventually to the many problems with our country.
By Stephanie Enloe,
stephaniee@cfra.org,
Center for Rural Affairs
What if you could reduce your electric bill while increasing the comfort of your home? More and more utilities are finding ways to do this, often using “tariffed on-bill financing.”
Tariffed on-bill financing may be a dry term, but programs in this category have exciting benefits for residential electric utility customers. These programs – sometimes billed as “Upgrade to Save” or “Pay as You Save” – can save customers hundreds of dollars annually, enable utilities to provide energy efficiency upgrades, help homeowners build equity in their homes, and create local jobs.
Using a tariffed on-bill approach, a utility covers the upfront cost of an energy efficiency or distributed generation project for a customer’s home. The customer pays for the upgrade, usually over many years, via a small “tariff,” or fee, on their bill. Because these projects help customers use less energy, programs can be designed so the total cost of each bill is still lower than before they installed the upgrades.
Rural electric cooperatives, which serve 45 million rural Americans nationally, usually are eligible to apply for millions of dollars to finance these programs using the Energy Efficiency Conservation Loan Program (EECLP). This program provides low-interest loans to rural utilities to help customers install energy efficiency or other clean energy projects.
Using EECLP and on-bill financing, rural electric cooperatives are in a position to infuse millions of dollars into the rural communities they serve.
For more On-Bill Financing information contact Stephanie Enloe, at stephaniee@cfra.org.
Established in 1973, the Center for Rural Affairs is a private, non-profit organization working to strengthen small businesses, family farms and ranches, and rural communities through action oriented programs addressing social, economic, and environmental issues.
