Notes on Texas' various Corporate Welfare programs....

"Dishonest scales are an abomination to the Lord,
But a just weight is His delight."
Proverbs 11:1

Over the weekend, we read TPPF's recently released Policymaker's Guide to Corporate Welfare; we offer some notes on things we found interesting, but we recommend reading the whole thing yourself.

TPPF divides corporate welfare into three areas:

• State Subsidies -- Direct payments from taxpayers.

• Local Tax "Incentives" -- Special interest carve outs that lead to higher rates for everyone else.

• Regulatory favoritism -- According to TPPF: "the government enacts a series of regulations that essentially locks in a guaranteed revenue stream for existing players, all while discouraging new players from entering the market."

TPPF makes a number of policy recommendations; all move the ball in the right direction, though we will note some areas where they don't go far enough:

• Eliminate the Texas Enterprise Fund.

• Repeal all of the "Event Trust Funds."

• Eliminate the Texas Moving Image Industry Incentive Program.

• Eliminate the Agricultural Loan Guarantee Program.

• Eliminate the Texas Emissions Reduction Program.

• Eliminate the mandatory Texas' Renewable Portfolio Standard.

• Abolish the Skills Development Fund.

• Require "Tax Increment Reinvestment Zones" to publish their financial information on a the local governmental entity in questions public website.
• Note I: This doesn't go nearly far enough; Tax Increment Financing and Tax Increment Reinvestment Zones should be abolished in their entirety.
• Note II: The "Transportation" bond Austin passed last year is full of this crap.

• Allow Chapter 312 "property tax abatements" to expire in 2019!!!
• Note: Did you know that all local property tax abatements will go away in two years if the legislature does nothing?!?  Neither did we!!!  The Senate needs to grow a pair and kill this nonsense without a hearing.

• Eliminate Chapter 313 "abatements" from school districts.
• Note: Apparently, the office of the comptroller was recently given authority to deny this foolishness as well; we'll be keeping an eye on Glenn Hegar's performance in this area.

• Require local governments to make their "economic development" policies consistent and transparent.
• Note: No, we should just abolish this drivel.

• Eliminate the ability of political subdivisions to impose section 4A and 4B sales taxes.

• Discontinue public funding for "Economic Development Corporations."

• Eliminate Hotel Occupancy Taxes.

• Deregulate Title Insurance.

• Deregulate medical "scope of practice" requirements.

• Eliminate Texas' "three tier" system of alcohol regulations.
• Note: The Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission (TABC) is a public policy abomination that should be abolished in it's entirety.

• Review every occupational license category in Texas and eliminate all but those that demonstrate the highest level of need to protect health and safety.
• Note: Licensing is theft.  There is no 'health and safety' for any category of license.  That's always been true, but it's even truer in a world that includes Yelp!

Read the whole thing here.