Latino economic disparities cut across wages and benefits, median income, home ownership, debts, and savings. Their middle class and wealth-building status affect choices to strengthen family bienestar (well-being), civic involvement to gain political power and policy influence, and structural changes needed.
The people and vital services least able to handle increased costs for food, gas, housing, and utilities are the ones least likely to benefit from inflation-related adjustments. Yet, the Texas Senate Finance charged with examining Texans’ current tax exemptions and whether adjustments are merited because of inflation are looking for more ways to keep businesses […]
Texas’ ideology to accommodate the tax policy needs of the corporate sector while limiting human capital investments (e.g., education, health, housing, economic development) that equalize opportunities for economic mobility are legendary. The state’s regressive tax structure is a core pilar of this ideology where Latino and Black households are inequitably impacted. They pay more than […]
Immigrants are a vital part of Texas’ economy. Their consumer spending power totaled 120.3 billion dollars, and they paid $40.6 billion dollars in local, state, and federal taxes. They are significant economic contributors to every Congressional District….
The 3rd Texas Latino Policy Symposium (TXLPS III) urged local and state Covid-19 recovery support and structural policymaking change. Covid-19 further exposed Texas’s inadequate and unequal investments in education, employment, housing, health care, and economic development.
Latinos have experienced inequitable and discriminatory state and local public policies with negative impacts over generations. Progress has been made but challenges remain. Improvements in the social and economic mobility of Latino families first occurred because of significant labor movements of the 1920s. Further improvements followed from post-World War II Mexican American civic organizing and […]