By John Tedesco Houston Chronicle Originally published Dec. 17, 2021 The Houston Chronicle reports on lack of transparency in New Braunfels' taxpayer-funded expenditures on a private corporation. Read the full story here.
Houston Chronicle Editorial Originally published Dec. 10, 2021 There’s a reason Texas lawmakers, Republican and Democrat, got rid of the biggest corporate welfare program in Texas. ... Chapter 313, as it’s known, is a $10 billion boondoggle. The program let wealthy corporations keep a portion of their property values off school district tax rolls for a decade, when property values are often at their peak. It was rife with abuse — some companies claimed they needed tax incentives to lure them to Texas when in fact they’d already broken ground on their Texas projects. It was poorly regulated, with lax standards [...]
By Valerie Gonzalez The Monitor Originally published Nov. 27, 2021 An open government advocate said this week that if Texas legislators are one day successful in closing a loophole in the state’s public information act, municipalities such as Rio Grande City would no longer be able to work around certain requirements — such as responding to requests. The handling of a recent request for public information from Rio Grande City became the latest example of such a loophole in the Texas Public Information Act. Read the full story here.
The Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas is forever grateful for the dedicated service of former organization president Ralph Langer, who passed away in August at age 84. FOIFT honored Langer at our Sept. 24, 2021, state conference with the following remembrance delivered by current board president Arif Panju: In Memoriam, Ralph Langer Ralph Langer was the former long-time president of the Freedom of Information Foundation and the guiding light behind transforming the Foundation into the leading voice in Texas on open government and the First Amendment. Ralph died August 5 at his home in Rockwall after an illness. He was [...]
By Daniel Van Oudenaren The Austin Bulldog Originally published Nov. 10, 2021 Advocates who pushed for changes to Texas’s public information laws at the legislature this year are celebrating a handful of wins but fell short on some of their agenda. Two new transparency laws took effect September 1st, the fruit of a bipartisan effort: Senate Bill 930 by state Senator Judith Zaffirini (D-Laredo), which ensures that families of nursing home residents have access to information about outbreaks of communicable diseases within the facilities; and Senate Bill 1225 by Senator Joan Huffman (R-Houston), which tightens the catastrophe exception in Texas Public [...]
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