Posted on 06/04/2002 11:27:01 AM PDT by Pining_4_TX
Uh huh. Just like the lottery proceeds.
Do you not understand these are politicians?
They make promises to get the money and then do whatever they please with it.
Only 20% of us are engaged, the rest of the voters only want their beer and bass boat.
Holy CRAP. Walll p!ss on mah boots... It's $10 up here... Oh well hopefully I'll be rich and famous and can afford an annual $40 AND all my vices...
Most folks I know are fine with sales tax/property tax, not the rate, but the idea. It keeps the fire to the feet of the politicos.
'course I don't hang around with Houston Chronicle or Austin Amerikan-Socialist editorial writers.
Yeah, due to the higher specific gravity of water. But wondering why DFW would have the same humidity levels...
One thing you can count on is vote fraud so that will have to be watched very, very closely. Texas has a 7.8% sales tax, I consider that a fair and evenly distributed tax. Austin is just going to have to get by with that.
I think it's just around the corner. The border area is in big economic trouble and local property taxes are extremely high and aren't close to doing the job. Look at the money being sent to the border counties already ---and they need a lot more.
No, it will not do either. It will be supplemental. What they fail to see, it would hurt our economy, which would mean less revenue from taxes, which would mean taxes would have to be raised to make up for it, which would again hurt the economy, and so on, and we spiral down into bad times.
Normally I would dismiss this, but having attended some of the GOP and libertarian strategy sessions as of late, Conservatives are vulnerable in several areas in the state. The public face everybody is putting on is that we are going to do fine. The private one is sweating bullets.
There is another solution: It is called CUTTING THEIR SPENDING...... Border areas are spending too much money on things they have no business spending it on. THEY NEED TO CUT SPENDING. Individuals and families do it.
All politicians do is SPEND SPEND SPEND...
I have an idea. If they ever pass a state income tax, Everybody in Texas should immediately quit their job and go on the public trough..... Everyone gettin' and nobody givin'. That will teach the state.
About 12 years ago, the last time the Houston papers were all beating the drum, here is what happened:
1. The power elite huddled in a series of meetings at which the then-lieutenant governor (more power than the governor) peddled the idea of a state income tax.
2. The newspaper moguls attended the meeting but weren't interviewed by newsies as they came out......gross misfeasance by the newsies. The attendees all played coy about what was discussed, saying only that it was an adult conversation (we weren't invited, naturally) about the state's dire fiscal crisis and the severe, crying need for "tax reform".
3. The papers ran a concerted political campaign, with one of their political reporters (led by Felton West, who never met a tax he didn't like -- he was an old-school LBJ Democrat -- and Mickey Herskowitz) taking a turn about once a week to boom up the income tax.
4. The papers ran major spreads showing how wonderful a state income tax would be for us, and it would only be 5%, that'd be all the State would need. Ever. (They lied, but that's okay, if you're leading.) The papers tried to "prove" that Texas absolutely, positively needed the revenue.
5. A badly-timed article broke in one of the newsmags, in which the California tax situation and fiscal crisis was laid bare. It turned out, from numbers in the article, that just like Texas, California was assessing high property taxes (the ones the Texas tax-liars were telling us would go down, if only, but only, we would support a state income tax), high sales taxes, and numerous fees and other taxes and charges, PLUS a 9.3% personal income tax on top of it all, which the legislature was getting ready to raise -- again. Californians were paying total taxes per-capita 50% higher than Texans -- and they were still in fiscal crisis !
6. State comptroller John Sharpe (now running for Lt. Governor) released a budget-scrubbing report detailing hundreds of millions in missed, underpaid, underreported, squandered, or otherwise maladministered funds. Texas needed a state income tax -- not!
7. The chairman of the state senatorial committee overseeing the bill was beaten at the polls. Not long afterward, one of his key lieutenants in the process was killed in a taxiway collision during an airshow.
8. The State of Texas proceeded to enjoy several years of continued state government that did not need, and was untroubled by talk of, a state income tax.
That was a Bob Bullock ploy, a stratagem. Watch and see how they use it. They'll use it like a buck knife, you'll see.
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