[Theodore R.]

February 3, 1959, was "the day the music died" for Texas. If and when a state income tax becomes law in Texas, that will go down in history as "the day the Republican party died," no questions asked.

[Mulder]

"We have to put everything on the table," said Grusendorf, R-Arlington.

Another GOP turncoat.

How much longer will the suckers believe that the GOP is the party of less government and lower taxes?

[junta]

These are desperate actions to save a nominally egalitarian system and of course (thankfully) they will fail. Give it a few years and we will be in the same boat as many third world countries and the elite won't know what went wrong.

[Mamzelle]

I know some smug liberals in Texas, there for the tax advantages. I always get a hoot out of liberals choosing to live where taxes are low and illegal gardeners and hosuemaids are plentiful. Wonder if they'll end up moving to New Hampshire...

[doc30]

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.

THis says it all. School funding is spread over the whole region, yet some districts are "poor" becasue they are in low income areas, even though they have roughly the same funding, yet they need more money. Has anyone ever tried to link poor performance in schools to the teachers or the local culture that does not emphasize education? In this article, it sounds like schools in a wealtheir district should have less funding than schools in poor districts. Maybe someone from Texas can say if my take on this is accurate?

[dalebert]

Texas Republican party will be dead if a state income tax becomes reality. Texas pubbies will not stand for it.

[Blood of Tyrants]

I REALLY get tired of the liberals who deliberately distort the legend of Robin Hood.

Robin Hood DID NOT steal frem the rich! Robin Hood stole from a corrupt government that had taxed it's citizens into poverty!

[mountaineer]

Clinton alert: Clinton to lecture at UT on Feb. 12.

[af_vet_rr]

If and when a state income tax becomes law in Texas, that will go down in history as "the day the Republican party died," no questions asked.

Things are very very broke in Texas, and rather than fixing the problems and installing some accountability amongst those who handle taxpayer money, they just want to pass the buck on to the taxpayer. There have been several times over the past few years of governments in Texas, from state down to local, wasting money on various projects that didn't pan out or were canceled. There is no "punishment" for those who do so, they simple continue to burn through taxpayer money and/or ask for more.

It's not helping the Republicans in Texas when Perry pulled his "we can't fix it" spiel a few weeks ago.

[Xenalyte]

Ping 'cause we CANNOT let this happen.

[aristeides]

What about phasing out the expensive and educationally ineffective public school system, and replacing it with cheaper and better private and religious schools? Wouldn't that save a lot of money?

[jimt]

If the federal goobermint would do its damn job and deport the parasites glutting themselves on the taxpayers, Texas would have no budget shortfall.

[Andiceman]

Here's a question to my fellow Texans on this issue:

In a related article recently it was reported that one of the "richest" districts, Eanes ISD (Westlake area of Austin) was going to be sending more money out via Robbing Hood than they were going to be able to keep for their own use. It would seem to me that if I were in charge of that district I would just REDUCE the tax rates as necessary to fund Westlake's needs without the "excess" that would be sent to other districts. Why hasn't this been proposed? Am I missing something about how this system works (probably)?

[Centurion2000]

Time to raise the Jolly Roger in Austin.