Don Huffines on Tucker: When I'm Governor of Texas I will use the Constitution to secure the Texas Border!

twitter ^ | Sep 29 | Tucker

[Carl Vehse]

Don Huffines' mail ad claims: "We must phase out the property tax system and we must start now. I have a detailed plan to do just that without alloing a state income tax. Read the detailed plan on my website."

Of course, there is no state property tax. Property taxes are assessed by cities, counties, and local school districts. To phase out such property tax systems requires an amendment to the Texas State Constitution. Such an amendment needs a 2/3rds approval by both Texas houses and a majority approval by Texas voters. Furthermore, Huffines' "detailed plan" simply consists of an offer to "prioritize our budget to guarantee that public schools are fully funded" and "[e]nsure that consumption tax swaps are slow and gradual as property taxes fall significantly. Income taxes are off the table."

It's more likely that cities, counties, and local school districts will just resort to increased sales taxes (or institute value-added taxes) to make up for the loss of property taxes. While a state income tax is constitutionally "off the table," it is possible some Texas cities would try to institute their own income tax system.

Huffines' ad also indicates he will "stop the illegal invasion and stop giving illegals our money." Huffines states in his ad, "As Governor, I will immediately use, Article I, Section 10 of the U.S. Constitution to stop this invasion, and deport illegal aliens who attempt to invade our state." Article I, Section 10 states: "No State shall, without the Consent of Congress,... engage in War, unless actually invaded, or in such imminent Danger as will not admit of delay."

Huffines proposes to take several actions, "no matter what the federal courts say about it." Those actions include:

• Activate the "entire National Guard, Texas Military forces, and necessary state law enforcement personnel"
• [P]rotect our state, including the nearly the entire 1200-mile Texas border [which] is controlled by the Mexican cartels"
• "[C]omplete the nearly 200 miles of wall planned or under construction when President Trump left office"
• "[C]lose the roads at the 25 bridges over the Rio Grande to all inbound commercial traffic"
• "[U]se severe economic pressure to incentivize Mexico to control the cartels and secure their side of the border"
• "[T]ask the Texas Legislature to expand this law to require all businesses to use E-Verify"
• "[C]ontinue calling for special sessions until this legislation is passed."

This all sounds good, but leave some significant questions unanswered about how such plans actually could be implemented, the cost of implementaion, measuring the effectiveness of implementation, and what happens if the federal government prevents any of this from happening.