Posted on 10/24/2003 4:52:47 PM PDT by PetroniDE
Legislator proposes state income tax
Says plan is a fair way to fund schools
EL PASO -- The only fair way to reform school financing is to create a state income tax, lower property taxes and write an ironclad law that ensures the money is spent on education, a senator told a Texas House caucus on Thursday.
However, Sen. Eliot Shapleigh, D-El Paso, who spoke at a Mexican American Legislative Caucus hearing in El Paso, said he didn't believe the current method of financing, called "Robin Hood," is broken.
The Texas Legislature is expected to be called to a special session next year to replace the current method of school financing, which redistributes some property tax money from property-rich districts to poor ones.
Shapleigh said a plan promoted by Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst that would increase and expand the state's sales tax doesn't raise enough money, shifts taxes from wealthy to lower-income taxpayers and increases the gap between wealthy and poor school districts.
"You can feel it in your bones that (lawmakers) are moving toward a sales tax," Shapleigh said. "This is going to be the default position unless we mobilize our base, our people, and encourage others to do the same."
Dewhurst spokesman Mark Miner said the lieutenant governor has just begun the process of finding another way to fund public schools and will use the proposal as a starting point.
"There needs to be tax reform to address school finance," Miner said. "We need to ensure that urban and rural, small and large schools have adequate funding."
Shapleigh, who represents an area that has relied heavily on Robin Hood money, gave a presentation showing how few revenue sources are available to replace that money and to pay for new students.
His proposal calls for implementing a provision in the state constitution.
That provision says legislators must put a state income tax to a statewide vote. If passed, two-thirds of the tax would be dedicated to property tax relief and the remaining revenue would be distributed equitably among the state's school districts.
It requires any future increase in the income tax to be approved by another statewide vote.
Shapleigh said the proposal would raise $34.6 billion in income tax revenue, reduce property taxes by $23.1 billion and provide $11.5 billion in new revenue for education.
He said the $11.5 billion would supplement state funding for education and make up for the loss of Robin Hood money but wouldn't quite put Texas at the national average for school spending.
If they flee to Oklahoma in an attempt to get an income tax, they won't be allowed back in. There are enough of us to line the state borders.
This has to be put to a referendum, though, and we don't have enough Communists in this state yet to make it work. And there are enough of us who are passionate about this that we could watch those polls like hawks to keep the illegals away.
Wow! There's a reflection of the Texas mindset .
Operative word is "YET". If the democrats EVER get power back in Texas, we all in deep (you know what). Even the Viking Kitties won't save us (good excuse for kitty picture).
TAX THIS !!!!
Not really; the bills didn't pass, of course. You can be executed in Texas for crimes committed as a juvenile, but I think you have to be 16, probably 17 to be sentenced to death. It's unusual but it does happen.
Not.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.