#TXLEGE: Either they think we're stupid. Or they actually ARE stupid. Neither is good.

"The wise in heart will receive commands,
But a prating fool will fall."
Proverbs 10:8

What could POSSIBLY go wrong?!?

The top leaders at the Texas Capitol reaffirmed Friday that they were determined not just to constrain property tax growth going forward, but actually to cut property tax bills.

Gov. Greg Abbott, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and House Speaker Dennis Bonnen, R-Lake Jackson, said they supported allowing voters to decide whether to increase the state’s sales tax by one percentage point to buy down property tax rates.

“If we’re able to pass a sales tax increase that will be dedicated to driving down property taxes, (property) taxes are going to be less next year than they were this year,” Abbott said at a press conference.

Democrats, who could play a spoiler role, reiterated their opposition to the move, which they say would not be a good deal for poor or middle income Texans.

The House could vote on House Joint Resolution 3 by Rep. Dan Huberty, R-Houston, which would increase the state sales tax pending approval by voters, sometime next week. The measure also presumably is linked to key property tax relief provisions in the latest version of House Bill 3, another legislative priority that would direct more money to schools and updates school funding formulas.

HJR 3 would need the approval of two thirds of each chamber. In the Senate, two Democrats would have to join all 19 Republicans. Two Republicans — Sens. Paul Bettencourt, R-Houston, and Bob Hall, R-Edgewood — have expressed opposition to a tax increase. Bettencourt said he would prefer to raise revenue in other ways and has said tax swaps don’t work.

In the House, 17 Democrats would have to vote with all [83] Republicans for passage.

With the House Ways and Means Committee modifying the measure to no longer dedicate some of the increased sales tax money to schools — now, as written, every dollar goes to the property tax buydown — Democratic votes could be harder to come by.

House Democratic Caucus chairman Rep. Chris Turner, D-Grand Prairie, told the American-Statesman that there are “at least” 60 no votes among Democrats. They won’t vote to increase the sales tax, he said, because it’s among “the most regressive taxes.”

This has both public policy AND political disaster written all over it.

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Public Policy Disaster:

The biggest policy problem with this proposal is that Texas' current statewide leadership has zero credibility.

In that environment, we have no reason to believe that we won't end up with both a higher sales tax AND the property tax status quo.

Make no mistake: Moving, over the long run, from property to consumption taxes is still a good idea.  The legislature entered this session with plenty of money for a significant down payment.  They had a plan they could adopt.

Instead, lawmakers chose to spend astronomical amounts of money on...basically nothing.

This sales tax hike is a belated CYA attempt...and, as such, it should be rejected.

Furthermore, when it comes to the sales tax, you can also eliminate exemptions.  There was potential consensus on this idea early in the session.  The problem, of course, is that each of those exemptions has a lobbyist/trade group defending them.  Thus, eliminating sales tax exemptions "is too hard."

So we get this hot mess of a proposal.

We're reminded of late 90's Chris Rock:



Can you come up with a better comparison?!?

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Political Disaster:

That Chris Turner quote speaks for itself.

The TV commercials/online videos, likewise, write themselves.

Do Greg Abbott, Dan Patrick, and Dennis Bonnen really want to be the face of this debacle?!?

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Bottom Line: D-E-B-A-C-L-E

#TXLEGE: Consensus and Dissention on University Tuition

"Wealth gained by dishonesty will be diminished,
But he who gathers by labor will increase."
Proverbs 13:11

[Note: The hearing can be viewed here; our testimony is 90ish minutes in.]

We testified this morning in favor of HB 132 (Gonzalez): "Relating to a limitation on the amount of tuition charged by public institutions of higher education"; this is the tuition freeze bill we discussed in January.

Gonzalez did a really good job laying out her bill.  She explained how public university tuition has exploded across Texas.  This is personally relevant to Gonzalez seeing how, apparently, she's just completed her Phd.  What we really loved, however, Gonzalez pointed out that shuffling off tuition to the Board of Regents' was a way for the legislature to duck responsibility.

Amen.

Gonzalez made most of the points we wanted to make.  During our testimony we added that, while most of the problems in higher ed. policy are federal, that was no reason for the state of Texas to make things worse.  We've thought that how Texas public universities set tuition rates was a particularly bad system for at least five years.

That was where things got interesting.  Following our testimony, Chairman Turner felt compelled to explain that, while he was very sympathetic to the complaint, tuition reform needed to be accompanied by more state spending.  We're familiar with the argument.  As we explained to Chairman Turner, we're sympathetic to the argument, but we need tuition restraints with teeth up-front.  We were about to make a further point about cost controls when...

...John Smithee spoke up.  As the only member of the committee who was in the legislature when the current system passed, Smithee called it "a vote I wish I could have back."  Smithee then made the same points about expensive buildings and excessive bureaucracy this author would have made.

Bottom Line: The breakdown of support/opposition to this bill was very intersting....

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Political Note for Republicans: There were (at least) four Democrat bills dealing with tuition on today's docket.  Zero from Republicans.  If you want to know why you're getting killed with the under-40 crowd, that would be a good place to look....