Life, Liberty, and Property Taxes with Don Huffines

High property taxes, a porous border, and failed government schools concern many Texans. On this week’s Liberty Cafe, we talk with Don Huffines about how to address these problems and further secure liberty in Texas.   Transcribed by Otter.ai: Bill Peacock Property taxes are robbing Texans, robbing them of their wealth and their homes and businesses. Or Don Huffines, a husband, father, businessman, former Texas State Senator, and founder of Texas's newest free market, think tank, believes Texans have something even more important at stake in the battle over property taxes, their liberty, we'll be talking with Don about these issues and more on episode 102 of the Liberty cafe. Hi, this is Bill peacock. Welcome to the Liberty cafe. I'm blessed to have you here with me. And of course, also blessed to be sponsored on the Liberty cafe by Texas scorecard. So please run over to Texas scorecard.com, and see how you can engage and get involved in the battle for Liberty here in Texas. Well, our special guest today is Don Hofheinz on the Liberty cafe. And the occasion for this is that the Hofheinz Liberty foundation is releasing its first paper about this time on property taxes and the problems with property taxes in Texas, you can run over to have fans liberty.com and learn more about it and see some of the solutions that they're talking about. But let me just give you a couple of stats here. Texans last year paid $73 billion in property taxes. That's up from 40 point 5 billion just 10 years ago 38 billion of the 78 billion of that money goes to government schools than the state kicks in another 30 billion on top of that, which means that a total of 68 billion of our tax dollars are being spent to tell children, our children that there's no God that boys can become girls and girls can come become boys, and that we must erased Western civilization to atone for our racist past. And yeah, they often fail to teach our children, many of them anyway how to read write and think. So whether one thinks that the public education system in Texas should be reformed or abolished the problems we see in government schools, points to the concerns about liberty that our guest today Don halftones has when it comes to the property tax and many other problems with government that we're dealing with today. So before we get to Don, let me just in full disclosure, let you know that that I work for Don, I'm part of the Hofheinz Liberty foundation, I do research and writing and whatever else needs to be done in the small think tank that we are. So just just full disclosure on that. So welcome, Don to the Liberty cafe. Well, thank you, Bill. It's great to be on your podcast. I know how successful it is. So let's well thank you very much. I appreciate that. So Don, you've gone from being a state senator, to gubernatorial candidate, and now to a founder of a think tank. What got you started on this journey? Don Huffines Well, that's a good question, Bill. It I have just been lucky. I always say, I've always had this burning sensation in my heart on a call. And I played with Liberty since I was a teenager. And it just never goes out. Sometimes it burns really bright and heavy. And other times it doesn't and but it's always there. And I think a lot of Texans feel the same way. And we just I just want to be free. I just want to live in my mind free to the government. I don't trust the government for any reason. Pay look to be a true patriot, always questions government, and always had. And so when I ran for office, a federal account was acting before I ran for office in 13. It's something that I was always generally helping candidates that I felt were the most conservative. I was a delegate to three national conventions have been delegates and many many say conventions over 30 years. When I ran, I ran for office in Texas senate for senate district 16 in Dallas County. Again, it's a 20 year plus incumbent who was one of the most liberal Republicans in Austin and I