Everyone might want to pay attention to the Texas govenor's race. Kinky Friedman might actually have a chance. Perry has just presided and is governing over a wreckless budget that he thinks can be tamed by higher business taxes.
WAKE UP, PEOPLE, BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE!!!!!
What a joke.
I saw Kinky on Larry King last weekend. He's a real character; Texas-like character.
You ought to take that comedy act on the road.
Perry has just presided and is governing over a wreckless budget that he thinks can be tamed by higher business taxes.
Texas has an $8 billion surplus. The only reliable source for stable education funding was the business franchise tax. Using any other method (like Strayhorn's goofy notion to put video gambling machines at racetracks) would not pass muster with the Supreme Court of Texas, which is calling the shots on the constitutionality of education funding.
This funding bill, which was endorsed by business, medical associations, and even legal organizations, will be Perry's ticket to another term in Austin.
There's more than one layer to the new tax, too. I'm not a lawyer, but, as I understand it (admittedly, some of this is from the perspective of the Medical Association and Academy of Family Physcians lobbyists I've talked to):
Those docs who would never take Medicaid or Medicare will find themselves suddenly begging for this tax break.
Finally, the State Legislature has acknowledged that we lose money on Medicaid and Medicare patients.
Big corporations are going to have much greater incentive to move their corporate headquarters to Texas.
All corporations, Professional Associations, LLP's, and all those other business models that enjoy some "limited liability" from the State will have added incentive to provide health insurance and other benefits for their employees, while not having any sort of mandate.
Professional Associations, which are corporations for sole proprieters such as docs, will have better tax relief for health insurance, retirement, etc.