A Texian Partisan column
The Ledger follows federal policy and the Texas economy to what they mean for Texans. It's a column of the Texian Partisan.
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Washington spent $1.99 trillion more than it took in during fiscal 2026, the third-largest deficit on record. Texas law forbids its own budget from doing the same.
Texas added 154,300 jobs in the year through September, all of it and more from private employers, while government payrolls fell by 6,100.
Minutes of the Fed's September meeting show most officials expect another rate increase by year end. Texas local governments owe $368.30 billion, with $63.71 billion more approved by voters.
Contributors with out-of-state addresses supplied 20.8 percent of the $886.0 million in Texas state politics this cycle, up from 19.8 percent in August, whoboughttexas.com data show.
Boulder's lawyer told the Supreme Court nothing in its theory stops climate suits against retailers. Texas, home to ExxonMobil and 42 percent of U.S. oil output, backs the producers.
The 30-year Treasury yield closed at 5.66% on October 5, its highest since July 2001, even after Treasury tripled the size of its long-bond buybacks.
Treasury data show the federal debt stood at $40.17 trillion when fiscal 2026 closed on September 30, up $2.53 trillion, or 6.7 percent, in a year.
Texas taxable property value is estimated at $4.33 trillion for 2026, up 5.07% after a flat 2025, and the Comptroller moved the same day to stop taxing marketplace platform fees.
A unanimous Sixth Circuit panel held that federal commodities law does not preempt Ohio's and Tennessee's gambling laws as applied to Kalshi's sports contracts.
The Fifth Circuit struck the federal ban on interstate handgun sales in a case brought by a Texas dealer.
Texas joined Florida in asking the Supreme Court to bar statistical estimates from the census.
The Supreme Court stopped lower federal courts from forcing Missouri onto its 2025 map after a voter referendum petition suspended it. Missouri's constitution reserves that power to its people; Texas's does not.
