Rare News Desk
The battle is an uphill in Washington, but at the state level conservatives have some successful pushes for liberty. Here are some great state level achievements to help you feel a little bit better about, well, pretty much everything going on in our government right now.
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- In January, Texas wound up with a ~$9 billion surplus… and actually worked to give that money back to their residents.
Flush with an oil and gas-generated surplus of nearly $9 billion, Gov. Rick Perry has called for a change in the Texas Constitution to allow the state to refund unspent revenues directly to taxpayers.
Perry brought the audience for his biennial state of the state address to their feet Tuesday morning asking the Legislature and citizens to help find $1.8 billion in tax relief during this session. Surprised at the duration of the ovation, Perry remarked, “I’m proud that in Texas, we’re talking about the best way to give money back to the people who paid it.”
Hoosiers would see their state income taxes drop slightly in 2015 and again in 2017 under a new two-year, $30 billion budget that Indiana lawmakers are set to approve on Friday.
It amounts to a 5 percent income tax cut phased in over four years – short of the 10 percent reduction over the next 14 months that Gov. Mike Pence had sought, but still enough for the Republican to declare it a “great victory.”
Conservatives have now won six of the past seven contested races for Wisconsin’s highest court and the formula is looking pretty familiar: win outstate, run up huge margins in the Republican suburbs and minimize the losses in Milwaukee.
4. Liquor privatization could be a thing in Pennsylvania.
The state House of Representatives took a historic step Thursday night, passing a bill that would privatize the sale of wine and liquor in Pennsylvania for the first time since Prohibition.
After seven hours of fiercely partisan debate, the House voted, 105-90, to approve the measure, which calls for gradually selling off licenses to private entrepreneurs, starting with beer distributors, and eventually closing the 600-plus State Stores.
5. Kansas and Missouri both just passed strong 2nd Amendment protections.
KS Gov. Sam Brownback signed a bill into law declaring that the federal government has no power to regulate guns manufactured, sold and kept only in Kansas.
The Missouri House passed HB 436, the Second Amendment Preservation Act, which “rejects all federal acts that infringe on a Missouri citizens’ rights under the Second Amendment of the United States Constitution,” and “allows certain school personnel to carry concealed weapons on school grounds”.
6. A bill is in Florida Gov. Rick Scott’s office right now to crack down on abuse of EBT cards.
Florida lawmakers have given final approval to a bill that would ban the use of welfare recipients’ EBT cards at “adult entertainment establishments” like strip clubs and casinos. The Senate passed the bill on a 37-0 vote Friday, sending the measure (HB 701) to Gov. Rick Scott for his consideration. The bill won overwhelming House approval earlier.
7. Back in December, the Michigan legislature passed a bill that knee-caps the union monopoly in the state.
With Democrats and labor leaders vowing retribution at the ballot box and beyond, the Republican-dominated Michigan Legislature on Tuesday approved sweeping, statewide changes to the way unions will be financed, substantially reducing their power in a state that has long been a symbol of union might and an incubator for the American labor movement.
Bonus: We have these guys in the Senate.
Basically, it doesn’t all suck. Freedom lovers still have a few things to cheer for!
