Public Policy Issues in Texas

Texas Prison System becomes something from the past, and the private prison system becomes the future due to limited budgets and events? Squaring off the full cost of state prisons in Texas requires accounting for expenditures in all areas of government that support the prison system not merely those within the corrections budget. “Due to supplementary budget to taxpayers can include expenses consolidated for governmental determinations such as employee benefits and capital costs, and services for inmates funded through other agencies. The prison also costs the cost of subversive, contributions to corrections wage earner pensions and retiree health care plans; states must pay the remainder of those contributions in the future.”(n.d.)

Texas is home to about 27 million people and continues to grow. Texas’s major public policy problem right now would be in infrastructure and can be fixed by compromise. There are two types of infrastructure which are economic and social. Infrastructure means those basic facilities and services which and facilitate different economic activities and thereby help in economic development of education, health, transport, communication, banking & insurance, irrigation, power, and etc.... There are two types of infrastructure which are economic and social. Infrastructure is the foundation upon which the Texas economy balances.

During the 1970’s, the tough on crime movement contributed to a drastic increase in punishment for lesser crimes and led a massive increase in imprisonment, even though the crime rates stayed the same (Gascon 2014). It is disputed that even though the movement was attractive to voters, it is doing more harm than good. Ever since the 1960’s, the amount of individuals detained has increased roughly about ten times than normal (Gascon 2014). Expanding a prison population requires more places, such as prisons and jails, to detain prisoners and California had built “22 new prisons in just 30 years” (Gascon 2014). Building new prisons and detaining more prisoner’s costs money and this money will come out of taxpayers. Newt Gingrich and B. Wayne Hughes Jr. said in an editorial that “prison is for people that we are afraid of, but we have been filling them with many folks we are just mad at.” They also state if the proposition is passed it will bring some light on the face that over $60,000 is spent on one inmate alone per year, while less than $10,000 is spent on each student in schools (Gingrich and Hughes 2014). The American Civil Liberties Union, the Sentencing Project, and the Crime Survivors for Safety and Justice are also in favor of the proposition. Some of these groups agree with Gingrich and Hughes statements, the money

There is no doubt that Texas’s state government is one of the most conservative in the nation on both an economic and social level. As a governing body Texas has fought to deregulate itself on the bases that a weak government translates to strong personal liberties. The political culture of the state is apparent to all who live there. However, in recent history Texas has proven to be a solid competitor when offering tax rebates to filmmakers and videogame creators who produce their content in the state. These rebates refund some of the production costs and are widely considered to be beneficial to employment within the state’s entertainment and tourism industry (Weed). Sadly, in 2015 Texas lawmakers cut the previously impressive budget for

Poverty and citizens’ rights are two of Texas’ main concerns and issues. It affects citizens health care and welfare. National policies are being implemented to solve and decrease poverty rates. Over two hundred programs like Medicaid and Medicare have been put in place to help less fortunate citizens and poverty-related problems. Controversial subjects like abortion laws and regulations are still being discussed and revised. The state is trying to protect people’s rights and provide for the less fortunate.

Kraft, M. E., & Furlong, S. R. (2015). Public policy: Politics, analysis, and alternatives (5th ed.). Washington, DC: Congressional Quarterly Press. ISBN:

This has become an increasingly important political issue in Texas due to the nature of Texas politics. In Texas, one of the necessary political standing for reelection is hard on

Texas can begin to respond to it’s ever-growing population by expanding its infrastructure. In essence, building more roads/ bridges and efficiently organizing new pipelines and electrical grids. In the past, Texas has been recognized to embrace more of an individualistic political culture. However, in southern Texas, traditionalistic political culture is dominant. Having these two different political cultures will make it difficult for any progress towards the increasing demands because they represent different ideas. The individualists culture believes the government should make advances in society while having little intervention with the public. Traditionalistic culture believes the government should focus on maintaining the status quo

The Lone Star state is one of the greatest states in the United States as it was once on its own as an independent entity. As a result, Texas politics is usually backed up by beliefs of self-reliance compared to other states and sometimes has been referred to as the stubborn teenager verses the stern mother – national government. This level of independence makes Texas unique in regards to policy making. Reasonably, Texans take pride in their history and truly believe in their government. In fact, the Texas legislative branch is relatively seen as the most powerful branch – the state’s law making body in the State. The likes of James Madison would concur with this statement, evidence of which can be found in the Federalist 51 whereby he mentions

2) Newell, C., Prindle, D., & Riddlesperger, J. (2011). Texas politics. (12th ed.). Boston, MA:Wadsworth.

Today we will be discussing the structure and a few roles of the Texas state government, the purpose and function of each type of local government, describing how some states have consolidated the county and city functions into a single entity, and my opinion on whether or not Texas would be better maintaining its several distinct types or consolidating them into a single larger entity.

In the year 2017, Texas Governor Greg Abbott has vetoed at least fifty bills. Some of these bills include the study of the accessibility of water in the future, teaching schoolchildren how to avoid sexual abusers, in addition to even allowing counties setting up defender offices for those who are disabled. He did not commit this action without reasons, however, as he explains that every axed bill was either costly, progressive, or extensive. One particular rejection of bill 790, the bill which involved prolonging the lifetime of the committee of studying women’s needs in Texas, raised a high amount of fury towards Abbott.

Ivins’ article contains multiple strengths that can be observed as one reads and critiques her writing methods. Ivins’ is able to approach her ideas on the Texas legislation through appropriate and creative use of evidence. She organizes her essay very effectively, creating a new paragraph for each of her points. In effect, Ivins is able to address the audience in a much simpler and convincing way. The author sounds authentic and thoroughly educated in the Texas government, which give the article and its author more credibility. Its proper organization serves to efficiently convey the author’s

Faced with a glaring deficit and terrifying examples of ineffective spending around the globe, lawmakers looking for cost-saving measures would do well to turn to prisons. Prison reform must attain the lowest economic costs, lowering actual taxpayer dollars spent without giving up the benefits of attaining important social goals, which represent another form of cost when lost. Undoubtedly, the current prison system is doing little to separate the US from its international counterparts in minimizing such cost, yet prison privatization has yielded hopeful results, as private correctional facilities seem to have a striking advantage over public ones in reducing both short-term costs in terms of prison operations, and long-terms costs, in

With the constant flow of convicts streaming into prisons, the prison system has become over flooded with more inmates than the government has room for. According to Michael McLaughlin, Since, 2004 the federal prisons has incarcerated over thirty nine percent more convicts than the buildings are designed for, and this percentage keeps growing with each passing year, and in 2012, most systems housed an astonishing average of about forty one percent of inmates over the premeditated limit. This crisis is causing an overwhelming amount of risk to the guards working the prisons, the inmates who are being stored like can of sardines, and to the taxpayers’ wallet. I propose that the adequate solution for overcrowded prisons is to pass a