[Texas] Governor proposes largest property tax cut in history

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Look... Stinky Freekman is a fake, a shill, a putts just running for self agrandizement and to disrupt the balance between the big parties. His sole hope to grab a few more votes from the Republican candidate than from the Democrat candidate and maybe change the outcome. ARE YOU BLIND???

Any dope willing to buy his pablem needs to turn in their voter registration card and go back to school.

Good LORD!!!! The last thing in the world we need is an INCOME TAX! Are you out of your MIND?!?!????!!!

Look, I've been around here for a long, long time dating back to Lewinsky. I'm certainly not a troll. What part of paying less taxes do you not understand? I paid less taxes in Missouri than I am paying in Texas. You may like paying higher taxes more than I do. That's your privelege. I prefer lower taxes. That's what I had in Missouri. Any damned fool can see that what we have in Texas is supremely stupid. How many "special sessions" are we going to have until somebody stands up and says "enough already?"

A state tax coupled with halving the sales and cutting the real estate taxes by 2/3's will result in lower taxes; not higher taxes. As Casey Stengel once said, "you can look it up." Missourians pay less taxes than Texans. And real estate taxes are just going to go out of sight and you'll be hit harder every year regardless of how much they lower the levy. This is a shell game they are playing in Austin. It's a fraud.

We will never fix the problem in Texas until we have a state income tax.

Move to Ohio. You can pay the same high sales tax plus pay real estate tax plus pay INCOME TAX.

The idiots who passed it here a few decades ago should be tarred and feathered.

That can be remedied easily through constitutional limits. The tax burden can not be higher than what it was previously under the old system. As the state takes in greater revenues (and it will), the total tax revenue rises with it. The individual tax payer is not going to get hit harder. But we are right now with our property taxes going out of sight. The neighbor across the street just saw his property revalued upwards of $125,000. He's paying about $8,000 a year in property taxes in Texas. The most I EVER paid in Missouri was about $700 for a 2,400 square foot house in a very nice neighborhood of Springfield. My sales taxes were 1/2 of what I pay in Texas. And my insurance costs were half of what I am paying now. Texans are getting fleeced right and left and I'm sick and tired of it and not going to be silent about it any longer.

The fact is that Texas is a wealthy state. It is a disgrace that we have such an antiquated tax system. It is more than overdue to come into the 21st century. Right now we are living as though we are living in the 19th century. That's just plain dumb.

Hey! There are exceptions to the rule! Funny thing is, I moved here a few years back from Massachusetts, and already find myself complaining about the northerners moving to the state trying to RINO-up the state government. Is that hypocritical? LOL

No, it's perfectly consistent with your original impulse to get a breath of fresh air -- LOL!

Richard W: "Case closed."

GulfBreeze: "Are you out of your MIND?!?!????!!!"

LOL -- "Case closed"? Guess not, Richard!

I paid less taxes in Missouri than I am paying in Texas.

You also didn't have 5,000,000 Mexicans living in your State, using county-hospital emergency rooms for their medical care and stuffing the county schools until their seams burst. Robert E. Lee High School in Houston is something like 80% Mexican, Mexican-American, and Central American now, and it's on the west side, in the "Magic Circle" near the Galleria.

We're being overrun and our public facilities are having absolutely huge demands placed on them by people who are effectively indigent because the wages they come here to earn are so low. Furthermore, our state DemonRat Party, when they were still running things, put lots of cost escalators in place and inflexible requirements on the spending side, the most infamous of which is the "Robin Hood" education-funding plan, which was intended to force the State's voters to accept an income tax as a panacea, except that the voters bulled their necks and made the income-tax crowd's leadership Go Away. But they couldn't get rid of court rulings by liberal judges in forum-shopped cases, and they couldn't get rid of the DemonRat lawyers who started all this and who are still playing furiously to get judges to mandate spending increases.

Get the picture now? There's a war on in Texas, with liberals driving state spending up in an effort to break public resistance to an income tax and paycheck withholding. That's what it's all about.

You can forget about a state income tax in Texas my friend and here is why:

Some years ago a very powerful fellow named Bob Bullock did his VERY best to get us a state income tax in Texas and failed. The backlash was so strong as to force an amendment to our constitution which requires that the people vote to approve any such form of taxation in this state. To say the least, then Lt. Gov. Bullock was NOT pleased with this turn of events and was, on several occasions, heard to say "before I'm through they will be begging for an income tax". That's how we got Robin Hood. Thats how we lost, until recently, the deductibility of our sales taxes on our federal tax returns etc.

Thank GOD Texans have LONG memories and a state income tax is, and will remain, a politically DEAD issue in this state for a LONG time. In my case I will do my utmost to ensure that it's forever!

Please be kind enough to remove the above duplicate post.

In theory you would think that a more diverse series of "smaller" tax bites would be good as it makes it more difficult for people to "loop hole" their share of the burden but I don't beleive that that is what happens.
More beauracracies simply create more ways to take our money. We as conservative must get the focus back onto restricting the spending!

We are letting the liberals frame this debate anyway! FIRST cut the spending THEN find the financing. We conservatives are going to be at each others throats as long we fall for this trick let the LIBERALS set the rules of debate. We forget about cutting the budget and instead tear each other apart looking for was to pay for THEIR great society and THE are laughing all the way to the bank.

Until then though...
Perry has a good plan and it WILL work if we put the ASSESSMENT caps in place.

It would be even better if he and everyone else would put the priority on cutting the FAT out of this budget!

Now that was worth saying twice.

I paid less taxes in Missouri than I am paying in Texas.

You also didn't have 5,000,000 Mexicans living in your State, using county-hospital emergency rooms for their medical care and stuffing the county schools until their seams burst. Robert E. Lee High School in Houston is something like 80% Mexican, Mexican-American, and Central American now, and it's on the west side, in the "Magic Circle" near the Galleria.

We're being overrun and our public facilities are having absolutely huge demands placed on them by people who are effectively indigent because the wages they come here to earn are so low. Furthermore, our state DemonRat Party, when they were still running things, put lots of cost escalators in place and inflexible requirements on the spending side, the most infamous of which is the "Robin Hood" education-funding plan, which was intended to force the State's voters to accept an income tax as a panacea, except that the voters bulled their necks and made the income-tax crowd's leadership Go Away. But they couldn't get rid of court rulings by liberal judges in forum-shopped cases, and they couldn't get rid of the DemonRat lawyers who started all this and who are still playing furiously to get judges to mandate spending increases.

Get the picture now? There's a war on in Texas, with liberals driving state spending up in an effort to break public resistance to an income tax and paycheck withholding. That's what it's all about.

I'm not taking any "liberal" position on illegals. That should be stopped and if I had my way it would get done even if we had to form a wall of military on the border.

This discussion is about the tax system. I fail to see how continually raising property taxes is the way for a modern state to fund its necessary services and needs. How much higher are YOU willing to have your property taxes raised? How much higher are YOU willing to have your sales taxes raised?

I am NOT an expert on the educational system. It is, however, my understanding that there is a dearth of qualified teachers and more and more teachers are being recruited who do not have their teaching certificates. I think this is what these special sessions are all about. Are we aiming to be 50th in the nation in teaching quality? If it were up to me I would throw out the whole public school system. I began in a one room school house myself and turned out all right.

Bottom line is that I believe we need a modern system of taxation in Texas that will fund NECESSARY services. If the borders are not being protected this is another problem to be dealt with but I can't see how holding onto an obsolete taxation system is the way to do it. And I AM in favor of lower taxation; not higher taxation. Missouri can do it. Why can't Texas?

Accessment caps? How would that work? If the property values continue upward at a rapid rate, they just pick your other pocket. You don't gain anything and the taxes continue to go up.

Look, this can be fixed and fixed permanently. It can't, however, be fixed by papering over the problem.

And how much longer before the courts step in and order a tax increase? It happened before and it'll happen again. Look at the prison system and what happened there.

You can forget about a state income tax in Texas my friend and here is why:

Some years ago a very powerful fellow named Bob Bullock did his VERY best to get us a state income tax in Texas and failed. The backlash was so strong as to force an amendment to our constitution which requires that the people vote to approve any such form of taxation in this state. To say the least, then Lt. Gov. Bullock was NOT pleased with this turn of events and was, on several occasions, heard to say "before I'm through they will be begging for an income tax". That's how we got Robin Hood. Thats how we lost, until recently, the deductibility of our sales taxes on our federal tax returns etc.

Thank GOD Texans have LONG memories and a state income tax is, and will remain, a politically DEAD issue in this state for a LONG time. In my case I will do my utmost to ensure that it's forever!

I'm not unsympathetic to your point of view. As I have said, I'm in favor of lower taxes; not higher taxes. But my central points are these. How much higher are YOU willing to have your property taxes and sales taxes raised?

Let me give you some specifics. I can think back to my time in Missouri. We paid 4.125 sales taxes and our taxes on our $170,000 home were about $700. Our state income tax came to about $1,200 per year on an income of around $80,000 or so. I did my taxes each year on Turbo Tax and the state program did all the calculations which was the most aggravating part of doing state taxes. When I bought new cars and I bought a whole slew of them I paid only the difference of the cost of my old vehicle sold to my neighbor and the new car cost. The last one I paid $10 to reregister my plates (the plates remain with the owner in Missouri). That was it. The whole cost. Since coming to Texas I have bought two new vehicles and have paid about $2,000 in sales taxes in two years. In Missouri I would have paid about $2,400 in state taxes in two years. That's about $400 more in state taxes net. But I paid 4.125 sales taxes throughout the year and half of the property taxes although my present home is valued less and considerably smaller than the home I had in Missouri. And what about the retirees? Say they had an income of $100K and then a fraction of that upon retirement. They get a little break due to their age but the real estate taxes keep going up and up until they may actually be forced from their home. Is that something we want to happen?

The legislature met once a year to do necessary legislation. We had mostly conservative governors (John Ashcroft and now Matt Blunt) who believe in lower taxes. We could have the same thing in Texas and get some real problems fixed if the will was there. Ever wonder how much these "special sessions" are costing Texans? And don't look for your taxes to go down. They'll just ccontinue to pick your pockets one way or another. Is that what you want to continue to happen. I've always believed that the best way to fix problems is to identify them and then set about with the best solutions. In Texas I believe lowering the property taxes and sales taxes and a SMALL state income tax is the way to fix the problem. And we need to close the borders to illegals. That can be done if there is political will do do so. Or, the alternative is to engage in a circular firing squad.

Assessment caps work by restricting the amount of your property value increase can be levied against you year by year.

Often and erroneously referred to as Appraisal Caps, Assessment Caps stop them from just jacking up your property values. Your property will appraise for whatever it would sell for on the open market. However if we legally mandate that the assessment can only go up by 3% per year as long as you own it (values would normalize if the property is sold or the owner dies or if modifications exceeding some arbitrary percentage occur)

This is the brake we need on the wheel of tax increase. BUT we MUST MUST MUST control spending.

And again... The FIRST goal should be cutting the budget. It is liberalism that says this can't be done. Raw liberalism.

Great post. Informative discussion. Thanks.

Assessment caps work by restricting the amount of your property value increase can be levied against you year by year.

Often and erroneously referred to as Appraisal Caps, Assessment Caps stop them from just jacking up your property values. Your property will appraise for whatever it would sell for on the open market. However if we legally mandate that the assessment can only go up by 3% per year as long as you own it (values would normalize if the property is sold or the owner dies or if modifications exceeding some arbitrary percentage occur)

This is the brake we need on the wheel of tax increase. BUT we MUST MUST MUST control spending.

And again... The FIRST goal should be cutting the budget. It is liberalism that says this can't be done. Raw liberalism.

I hope you are right. But experience has taught me over six decades that getting waste out of government is very nearly impossible.

I will tell you also that I know for a fact that the appraisal methods are a joke. Don't ask me how I know this but rest assured I do know what I am talking about. What's the old saying? It's not who you know but who.....

Richard I very much appreciate you honest and forthright reply. Now it is only fair that I be equally forthright with you.

The progressive income tax is an instrument of the devil, endorsed by Karl Marx and Frederick Engels in their Manifesto of the Communist Party, which requires that honest citizens give up much more than mear cash in order to comply with it. For that reason, I have, for more than eleven years now, advocated placing that system where it so properly belongs, on the ash heap of history, and replacing it with a far simpler and fairer system much like that envisioned by our country's founders. (you can check it out here) If that were to happen, and that result seems more likely than ever these days, Texas, or any other state for that matter, could conform it's tax base to that base, repeal all other currently exsisting state and local taxes, and raise the same amout of revenue with a sales tax rate far below that which we currently pay.

See http://www.fairtax.org/pdfs/State_and_local_FairTax.pdf

Sounds like you've got some high-priced commercial property you'd like some practical relief on. And you want the homeowners to relieve you.

I own no commercial property. I simply want a single, low rate applied to all property. Homeowners are a special interest group who want exemptions and caps. This creates conflict between special interest groups.

Long-time homeowners vs. new homeowners (Appraisal cap)

Homeowners vs. all other property owners (homestead exemption)

Although I am a long-time homeowner, I am principled enough to advocate that all property owners be treated equally. Not everyone shares that priniple. You seem to be one of those unprincipled people.

Broaden the tax base by eliminating the damn senior tax freeze.

Agreed. Seniors are a special interest group that wants to have different rules apply to them.

I suppose you are suggesting that real conservatives would lower the millage rate assessed by school districts and other tax assessors?

Yes. There are two ways to provide property tax relief. One is to give special interest groups exemptions (homestead exemption, appraisal cap, senior exemption, etc.) The other is to simply lower the tax rate. Lowering the tax rate is more beneficial to the economy than playing special interest politics.

Too many Freepers identify themselves in one of the favored special interest groups in this battle -- long-time existing homeowners. They want to expand the favorable treatment that benefits them (homestead exemptions and appraisal caps). I say lower the rate and quit playing special interest politics.