Posted on 02/04/2003 5:23:04 AM PST by Theodore R.
State income tax 'on the table' as Austin goes after Robin Hood Associated Press
AUSTIN (AP) — A state property tax and state income tax are among the many options lawmakers must consider to make good on promises to fix the ailing Robin Hood school finance system, House Education Chairman Kent Grusen dorf said Monday.
"We have to put everything on the table," said Grusendorf, R-Arlington.
The acknowledgment comes when politicians from Gov. Rick Perry to state lawmakers continue to make no new taxes pledges along with vows to improve the school finance system.
"We've got to talk about tax restructuring," Grusendorf said. "Most experts agree that a permanent solution cannot happen without having tax restructuring."
Tax restructuring is a term used by some politicians to describe changes to state tax laws, which prohibit a state property or state income tax.
Public schools in Texas are funded primarily with local property taxes and state and federal money. The school finance system takes money from property rich districts and gives it to poorer schools.
Schools in low-income areas have bought computers, books and new buildings with Robin Hood money — $600 million in the last two-year budget, a figure expected to ap proach $900 million by 2004.
Still, many poor schools say they lag behind and need more money to provide a basic education.
The state's 118 wealthier districts that have given up $1.5 billion are also pleading poverty. Many have raised local property-tax rates to the legal limit, making it hard to get more money. They say that Robin Hood is forcing them to cut programs and jobs.
Southern Methodist University professor of economics Kathy Hayes said Grusendorf has a good point, but one that may be politically tough to make.
"We need to do something. Eliminating Robin Hood is probably a good idea and in order to properly finance public education, we need to change our taxing system," Hayes said. "That would be a very difficult thing, I think, from a politican's point of view, to try to convince people."
Craig Foster of the Austin-based Equity Center, which represents hundreds of low-wealth school districts, said he hopes no-new-tax-pledging law makers are careful not to do away with Robin Hood without a better idea.
Otherwise, children in poor schools could be hurt, he said.
"If their goal was to maintain the same degree of equity by doing it with something other than Robin Hood then they would absolutely have to do something significant with regard to taxes," Foster said.
Grusendorf was reluctant to speculate about specific solutions to Robin Hood, saying he wants to first hear from all sides of the issue during the session. He'll get started Tuesday when the House Public Education Committee has scheduled its first meeting.
The committee plans to work on a bill filed by Grusendorf and Sen. Florence Shapiro, R-Plano, that would do away with Robin Hood in 2005. It mirrors legislation filed in December by Rep. Craig Eiland, D-Galveston, who said he wanted to force this Legislature to come up with a fix.
Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, who has made school finance a top priority for the Senate, agreed Monday that education revenue needs to come from a source other than local property taxes.
However, he stressed, "I don't see that an income tax is...a possibility.'
And how much of those taxes are being sent to other districts because of the whole 'Robin Hood' thing? If a district gets nailed and has to start paying into that, then they have to increase the taxes just to stay at where they were before. It was poorly conceived from the beginning.
America today is set up to keep the poor, ignorant and poor, but just happy enough not to riot, and to create NEW ignorant poor people until the socialists have a firm voting majority, if they don't already.
Yes, for the brain dead, it's sarcasm.
Second, this is dealing with SCHOOLS, and although not every illegal is eligible for all social services, YET, they ALL send their kids to school. WE pay for that. Throw in your school lunch programs and the law that requires emergency rooms to treat EVERYONE regardless of legal status, and yes , ILLEGAL IMMIGRANS ARE BANKRUPTING TEXAS.
If this doesn't fit the PC mold, tough, it's true, and the only thing the PC/left hates more than George Bush, is the truth.
I volunteer to lead any Houston convoys..
Apparently you haven't seen the voting patterns of the southern counties, places like El Paso?
Do you actually believe they are paying $5000 per year for each one of their children in taxes? Or paying their hospital bills when they come with no insurance? How much does it cost to give birth in a county hospital ---and do you honestly believe they actually pay that bill? And if so then why do the border hospitals require federal bail-outs?
It's not just illegals, many come legally ---those over 65 being sponsored by relatives to come but they get Medicaid and SSI immediately ---how many "sponosrs" actually take health insurance policies out on their elderly relatives?
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