Will Texas DOGE more spending?

State needs a similar effort to Musk’s federal crusade.

(Evan Vucci / AP)

One of the most amazing political phenomenon Americans have seen in ages is Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy (and X-Æ-12) making the rounds of Capitol Hill.

Unlike most previous efforts to bring efficiency to government, there are going to be no studies or commissions that produce reports but few results—often due to opposition in Congress. Instead, Musk and Ramaswamy—along with a cast of tech, financial, and legal savvy helpers— plan to use executive authority under existing law and Supreme Court guidance to “tame federal spending” and “deliver[] cost savings for taxpayers.”

How much they can accomplish against the federal leviathan remains to be seen, but the willingness and expertise seem to be there.

There has also been DOGE talk in Texas. State Rep. Elect David Lowe recently tweeted, “We need our own @DOGE in Texas. Texas Film Commission is a perfect example of - Cut It.” Rep. Brian Harrison has worked diligently to take on Texas’ bureaucracy, noting, “Texas government was smaller when DEMOCRATS were in charge.” And Rep. Briscoe Cain has formed the D.O.G.E. caucus.

But the prospects for a Musk/ Ramaswamy-like DOGE in Austin are more tenuous than those in Washington, DC.

During his first term, Trump was as big a spender as the next politician. But he does seem to have changed over the last four years—perhaps because of his zeal for cutting regulations and his personal experience with government bureaucracies. However, there is no indication that Texas political leaders who have presided over the state’s recent spending and regulatory sprees have had a similar revelation.

During its 2023 regular and special sessions, members of the Texas Legislature appropriated $228 billion in state funds, up 40 percent over 2021. Over the last three sessions, state-funded appropriations have increased 7.9% percent annually, from $144 billion to $228 billion.

It looks like more spending is on the way for 2025. Gov. Greg Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick have already called for another $5 billion in subsidies for natural gas generators. Gov. Abbott recently announced his support for similar subsidies for nuclear generators. Meanwhile, Texas school districts are salivating over the prospects of $5 billion in new funds in 2025 promised them in 2023 but which died along with school choice during the special sessions. All of this will be funded by Texas taxpayers; no cost savings there.

Neither does there seem to be much support for taming government regulation in Texas. The Public Utility Commission of Texas has essentially taken over the Texas electric grid during the last three years. The Texas Medical Board continues to cudgel those who practice medicine in ways that do not meet the approval of Big Medicine. And the Texas Ethics Commission’s efforts to shut down citizen participation in government are ongoing. Few legislative leaders appear concerned about these actions.

The Texas Legislature did spend $18 billion more on public education last session in an attempt to provide what was called the “largest property tax cut in Texas history.” But that did not work out as planned. School property taxes, the target of the effort, dropped only $4.5 billion last year—and are heading back up again this year, while total property taxes fell by only $750 million. A $750 million tax cut that cost $18 billion? Not much bang for the taxpayer buck. What happened?

More spending is what happened. We’ve already seen the recent high growth in state spending; local governments and schools did the same last year. New spending by cities drove city property taxes up by 10.4 percent. New county spending resulted in a 10.8 percent increase in county property taxes. And taking out the effect of the legislative tax cut, schools supported new spending with a 7 percent hike in property taxes. Local government and school spending increases wiped out most of the property tax cut.

This points to the main challenge that Musk, Ramaswamy, Harrison, Cain, and others who want to tame spending and deliver cost savings to taxpayers are going to face; politicians love to spend money. Our money. And as long as they keep spending our money, our taxes will continue to increase. There are no free lunches and there are no cost savings without spending cuts.

Are spending cuts possible? Absolutely. We may see some in Washington, DC, for the first time in decades. But I believe we are going to need a culture shock in Texas like we are seeing now in Washington before they happen here.

A version of this article was first published in the Dallas Morning News.