Opinion

The irony. Looking back through old Word files on my Apple Mac, made in China, I stumbled across an editorial I wrote Tuesday, Jan. 5, 2021, not knowing, of course, what was to unfold the f o l lowing day, Jan. 6.

The Texas Legislature made a host of major decisions in 2025, as The Dallas Morning News reported. Here are the highlights: • Homeowners received a break on their property taxes after approving a proposed constitutional amendment in November. The homestead exemption was increased to $140,000 from $100,000. People 65 and older were given an additional $60,000 exemption on top of that.

This Christmas season has been injected with a significant political element. There were 64,000 new jobs in November, but we’re told some 105,000 were lost in October. Furthermore, prices were up on a number of items while they were down on other items. Democrats are making much of the jobs numbers and certain prices since an election is coming up next year. Should Republicans be worried? I don’t believe so. The job losses, you see, are largely attributable to the government being shut down by the Democrats and to government downsizing requested by the voters. It’s true, of course, that there has been minor shrinkage of industrial jobs, but Trump’s reduction of taxes doesn’t kick in until next year. What’s more, it takes time for new industries to build and equip plants. Next year will be one of employment growth.