Ross Ramsey

Ross Ramsey co-founded The Texas Tribune in 2009 and served as its executive editor until his retirement in 2022. He wrote regular columns on politics, government and public policy. Before joining the Tribune, he was editor and co-owner of Texas Weekly. He did a 28-month stint in government with the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts. Before that, he reported for the Houston Chronicle, the Dallas Times Herald, as a Dallas-based freelancer for regional and national magazines and newspapers, and for radio stations in Denton and Dallas.

Latest Contributions

TribWeek: In Case You Missed It

By Ross Ramsey Feb. 12, 2011

The best of our best from February 7 to 11, 2011. Full Story
Redistricting Lawsuit: Count Citizens Only

By Ross Ramsey Feb. 11, 2011

Redistricting doesn't start until next week, but the first lawsuit has already been filed. Full Story

Credit: Graphic by Ben Hasson
The Governor's Symbolic Cuts and His Real Ones

By Ross Ramsey Feb. 11, 2011

The proposed budget cuts Gov. Rick Perry laid out in his State of the State speech are more symbolic than lucrative and trivialize the cuts that are being made elsewhere in state services and programs. Full Story

Credit: Todd Wiseman
House Committees Named

By Ross Ramsey Feb. 9, 2011

Speaker Joe Straus appointed members to committees today, shuffling the assignments in a Texas House where one in four members is a freshman and where Republicans have a two-to-one numerical advantage. Full Story

Credit: Marjorie Kamys Cotera
Perry to Push Colleges to Offer $10,000 Degree

By Ross Ramsey Feb. 8, 2011

Gov. Rick Perry will challenge the state's colleges and universities to offer a $10,000 bachelor's degree, including books, in his State of the State speech later this morning, according to sources familiar with some of the proposals. Full Story

Credit: Graphic by Ryan Murphy
Can a Pro-Choice Republican Win in Texas?

By Ross Ramsey Feb. 7, 2011

State Comptroller Susan Combs may test that question. She is considering a run for lieutenant governor in 2014. Full Story

Credit: Bob Daemmrich
Inside Intelligence: A Pro-Choice GOP Candidate Will...

By Ross Ramsey Feb. 7, 2011

For the latest installment of our nonscientific survey of political and policy insiders on issues of the moment, we asked whether a Republican who supports abortion rights can survive a statewide primary, whether the sonogram bill on the governor's list of emergency items addresses a real or a political problem, whether it will pass and what other issues of interest to social conservatives might win approval from this Legislature this year. Full Story
Pretty Good Forecasting

By Ross Ramsey Feb. 7, 2011

The keepers of numbers over in the LBJ Building, north of the Capitol, have confirmed to lawmakers what they warned them about in 2006: The legislation that cut local school property taxes and revised the state's corporate franchise tax didn't balance, to the tune of $10 billion a biennium. Full Story
TribWeek: In Case You Missed It

By Ross Ramsey Feb. 5, 2011

The best of our best from January 31 to February 4. Full Story
Texas Won't Secede — But It Won't Shut Up Either

By Ross Ramsey Feb. 4, 2011

Texas leaders aren't talking about secession, after an outbreak of conversation a couple of years ago. But the germ of the idea remains in the anti-federalist talking points that fueled Gov. Rick Perry’s re-election campaign last year and provided the outline for his book, Fed Up! Full Story

Credit: Bob Daemmrich