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NONONONONONONONONOOOOO

I am fixin to move my happy a$$ to Texas here in a year or so, getting the heck out of VA to which I've been paying state taxes to fund new office suite carpeting for the wine-and-white-linen set for the past ??? years... I was kinda looking forward to leaving all that crap behind, y'all! Thought you Texicans had more sense...

You can still move here. They won't pass a state income tax here. Liberals still act stupid down here, but they won't get such tax passed in Texas.

You poor thing. We did penance for eight years in Northern Virginia and finally made our way back to Texas. That place has more taxes than than a beach has sand. I almost stroked out when we got our first personal property tax bills for our vehicles. Coming from Texas, we'd never heard of such a thing. Then there was the 4.5% state income tax, the park taxes, tolls, sticker fees, inspection fees, etc., etc., etc. When Fairfax County built their new government center complete with the famous mega bucks teak conference table and marble toilets with gold fixtures we knew for sure we were among crazy people.

Hope you make it to Texas. I have no advice about where to live. I grew up in Dallas and it has its charms, but we prefer the more easy going lifestyle of a smaller town. By the way, hell will freeze over before a state income tax is imposed in Texas.

What is Virginia's personal income tax rate these days? I had to pay it one year when I was living there, in the Navy.

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.