Free Republic

In one year, over 530 police officers have relocated to Florida from 48 states and U.S. territories to take advantage of Florida’s Law Enforcement Recruitment Bonus Program. On April 1 last year, Gov. Ron DeSantis signed HB 3 into law, which included a wide range of law enforcement initiatives, including incentives to encourage both out-of-state residents and Floridians to join state and local law enforcement agencies. The recruitment program includes signing bonuses for every recruit, costs covered for training programs and relocation expenses, pay raises and $1,000 bonuses. It also created a Law Enforcement Academy Scholarship Program for children of...

A proposed Maryland bill would restore the right of the states’ citizens to participate in cow shares, or cow boarding, to obtain raw milk. Maryland citizens lost the right to raw milk via cow shares in 2006, when the appointed director of the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene redefined the word “sale” to include agistments. A hearing on the bill is scheduled for January 28 at 1:00pm at the Lowe House Office Building in Annapolis. Cow shares or cow boarding refers to a practice in which people buy shares in individual animals for a portion of the milk...

AUSTIN (AP) -- A sweeping $10.8 billion House tax plan falls almost $4 billion short of promised property tax relief over the next two years, according to a letter from the state comptroller obtained Tuesday by The Associated Press. The bill, adopted by the House last week, was part of a package to restructure the way Texas pays for K-12 public education. The proposal would offset a one-third slash in school property taxes with a reformed business tax and a variety of consumer taxes, including an increase in the sales tax and an additional 3 percent tax on snacks such...

HB3 - Conservatives Must Stop the "Payroll Tax" Now! by Matthew J. Griffing, Esq. Senior Vice Chairman for Legislative Affairs The Republican-led Texas House of Representatives has taken a big step toward doing what Democrats could not do in over 120 consecutive years in power – enacting a virtual state income tax. For many years, Texas Republicans advocated fiscal restraint, and their opposition to a state income tax was axiomatic. Those days are long over, and Speaker Tom Craddick (R-Midland) is to blame. This session, the House Leadership led by Speaker Craddick is dumping billions of new wasteful spending into...

Legislation cuts school property taxes, shifts $5.4 billion per year. The Texas House voted to approve a $5.4 billion-a-year shift in state taxes late Monday by agreeing to cut school property taxes by a third while boosting and expanding the state sales tax and modifying business taxes. The House approved the bill with a 78-70 vote, largely along party lines. Final passage in the House, which is likely to follow today, will send the juggernaut that is school finance reform to the Senate, where lawmakers will provide their own ideas about how to change the state's school and tax systems....

Grassroots Republicans Opposing Creation of New Taxes This weekend, the State Republican Executive Committee (SREC) will consider adopting a resolution, which flies in the face of the HB 3, the tax bill currently being considered by the Texas House. The resolution, submitted by Shirley Spellerberg, a member of the Republican Party of Texas' Resolutions Committee who serves as an SREC representative from Senate District 12, would strongly discourage the legislature from creating any new taxes, or increasing the current tax rates this session. House leadership is drawing considerable fire from grassroots supporters over the House Tax Plan, HB 3. The...

79th LEGISLATURE Bill would expand franchise levy, no longer require tax on payroll. Texas House leaders on Thursday again redrew their plans for changing the state tax system, saying they want to expand the corporate franchise tax instead of requiring all businesses to pay a payroll tax. Most businesses in Texas avoid paying the franchise tax, many by organizing as partnerships. The House plan proposed Thursday would expand the tax to include partnerships, then give businesses the choice of paying the current franchise tax or the payroll tax that a House committee approved earlier this week. Lawmakers are considering boosting...

When the revised version of House Bill 3 was released, attention focused on the "snack tax," a steep levy on junk food. But when construction and service business groups realized they would pay for breaks given to the financial, insurance and real estate sectors, the focus of the debate changed. And Tuesday, when the Legislative Budget Board gnomes released their analysis of whose tax burdens would change, many more Texans started tuning in. The LLB confirmed what I had earlier reported: 80 percent of Texans would pay higher taxes and the richest would get a tax break. HB 3 is...

Bill boosts sales tax to reduce levy on property Measure panel OK'd would raise local sales tax to 9.2%, cut property taxes by one-third By CLAY ROBISON and JANET ELLIOTT Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle Austin Bureau AUSTIN — Texas would have the highest state sales tax in the country, businesses would pay a payroll tax and smokers would pay a dollar more for cigarettes in exchange for a cut in school property taxes under a bill approved Wednesday by a House committee. The measure, which also includes new taxes on bottled water, auto repair services and car washes, would raise...