SB 1 Tax Cuts: Who Wins and Who Loses? Proponents of SB 1 claim they are “giving taxpayers back their money.” But only the 20% of Texas households with the highest incomes would benefit from SB 1 because, on average, they pay (directly or indirectly) a lower proportion of their income in sales and other state taxes than they would gain from SB 1’s forced reduction in property taxes. The remaining 80% of Texan households would be net losers if state taxes they had paid were used to replace school property taxes. Read more via Senior Fiscal Analyst Dick Lavine >> Return to Office Chaos? Not for Every Texan. On the one hand, the delay for many organizations to return to the office is demoralizing. On the other, it’s a real opportunity to extend the period of experimentation and consultation with staff, to provide even clearer messages about how work should change, and to train and support managers for the coming chapter. Read more via guest blog author Kevin Delaney, co-founder and CEO of Charter >> Every Texan Is Proud to Be a Unionized Workplace Every Texan recently reached a momentous milestone with the adoption of our first union contract. In February 2020, blissfully ignorant about how our lives were about to change in the looming pandemic, Every Texan (then known as CPPP) management and employees signed an agreement to voluntarily recognize our union, now known as Every Texan United. During the last 18 months, the road to our first contract hasn’t been straightforward or easy, as we navigated challenges including the COVID-19 pandemic, the closure of our offices and shift to remote work, and the search for a new CEO. We’re excited that we’ve finally made it. Read more via CEO Marisa Bono >> New Census Data Show Federal Investments Kept Millions out of Poverty, But Texas Needs Bold Action On September 14, the U.S. Census Bureau released data showing a nationwide decrease in income. But it could've been worse — families underwent extraordinary hardships due to the pandemic, but policy interventions kept many of them afloat. Without the substantial support provided by the CARES Act, the American Rescue Plan Act, and other state and local investments, Texas and the nation could have experienced a greater rise in poverty, impacting not only today but our future. Child poverty, for example, is shown to have cascading long-term impacts. Read more via Research & Data Director Amy Knop-Narbutis >> What to Expect from the 2020 Census Data Release Census data is an essential source of information for community decision-making. It underlies redistricting processes, funding allocation, and the ability of state and local governments to identify and work toward closing equity gaps. This year is a particularly technical one for those that follow Census data releases because it includes several Decennial Census products, plus significant changes to annual American Community Survey (ACS) data, both impacted by the pandemic. Read more via Research Analyst Kaitlan Wong >> |
