_ Taxes are too high. That's because government spending is too high. I want to reduce both.

Today our state government spends money on almost everything: education, health care, cancer research, business incentives (i.e. corporate welfare), and poverty programs. These may be worthy goals, but they are not proper functions of government.

Steps I would take:

• I would vote to repeal the business margins tax that was proposed and signed in 2006 by Republican Governor Rick Perry, and filed by Rep. Jim Keffer (Republican from Eastland).

• I would file a bill to cut the state sales tax from 6.25% to 4%.

• Those two tax reductions would reduce state revenue by about $25 billion over the next two years*. I propose cutting expenditures to match. (The current total budget is about $172 billion.) I support across-the-board cuts, and I note that most of the cuts will need to come from the two largest areas of state spending: education and health and human services.

*Estimate based on Comptroller's 2012-2013 revenue estimate.

_Selling and using drugs may be personally unwise, but those activities don't violate anyone's rights. By establishing drug prohibition, our government has taken a modest problem and turned it into a huge problem. Now we have to deal with drug gangs and black markets, and taxpayers have to pay to keep thousands of people in jail. We need to end this nonsense.

Steps I would take:

• I would vote for a bill to allow medical marijuana like HB 1491, filed last year by Rep. Naishtat (Democrat from Austin).
• I would vote for a bill to reduce marijuana penalties like HB 548, filed last year by Rep. Dutton (Democrat from Houston).
• I would file a bill to end prohibition of marijuana.

_State and local governments make it much harder than it should be to start your own business. Both native citizens and immigrants often wish they could start a business, but get frightened away by the mountain of red tape, fees, and regulations.

Politicians do this partly to protect well-connected businesses by shielding them from new, lower-priced competition. Government should not pick winners and losers.
I want to make it easier to start a business in Texas by reducing the power of government to get in the way.

Steps I would take:

• I would file legislation to reduce the power of cities to use permitting ordinances to limit and block businesses.
  
• I would file legislation to repeal many anti-competitive occupational licensing laws.
• I would file a bill to prohibit local governments from using tax subsidies to pick winners and losers.
  

_Texas has a fast-growing Latin American population. I want Texas Latinos to leave behind the big-government welfare liberalism of the Democrats and the big-government bigotry of the Republicans, and join the Libertarian Party instead. We don't want the government to prop people up, and we don't want the government to hold people down. I think that's consistent with the desire of most Latinos to have a level playing field where hard work pays off.

Steps I am taking:

• I'm encouraging Latinos to volunteer for Libertarian campaigns.
• I'm encouraging Latinos to run for office as Libertarians.