TXMO and AFP-TX clearly don’t see eye-to-eye

Texas Monthly just released their list of best and worst legislators. Whoop-tee-do. What warped glasses were they looking through?

The TXMO list is subjective, but this is an insight into the magazine’s “inside the beltway” mentality. It does not represent the taxpayers’ perspective.

Some of their Best are actually the Worst, some of their Worst are actually the Best, some Honorable Mentions are in Left Field, Some Dishonorable Mentions are most honorable legislators and some of the so-called “furniture” are actually movers and shakers.

Let’s get real. Sure, Texas Monthly has a right to their own perspective. No one should be mislead that their views represent the views of most Texans.
We will be issuing our own Legislative Report Card to Texas Taxpayers, which will not subjectively

Liberal Texas Monthly’s Best: Sen. John Carona (R-Dallas), Sen. Robert Duncan (R-Lubbock), Craig Eiland (D-Galveston), Rob Eissler (R-The Woodlands), Brian McCall (R-Plano), John Otto (R-Dayton), Jim Pitts (R-Waxahachie), Senfronia Thompson (D-Houston), Sen. Kirk Watson (D-Austin), John Zerwas (R-Richmond)

Liberal Texas Monthly’s Best: Worst: Wayne Christian (R-Center), Yvonne Davis (D-Dallas), Jim Dunnam (D-Waco), Allen Fletcher (R-Tomball), Kino Flores (D-Palmview), Sen. Troy Fraser (R-Horseshoe Bay), Sen. Mario Gallegos Jr. (D-Houston), Richard Peña Raymond (D-Laredo), Debbie Riddle (R-Tomball), Sen. Tommy Williams (R-The Woodlands)

Liberal Texas Monthly’s Best: Honorable mention: Sen. Kip Averitt (R-Waco), Dan Branch (R-Dallas), Sen. Robert Deuell (R-Greenville), Ruth Jones McClendon (D-San Antonio), Mark Strama (D-Austin), Mike Villarreal (D-San Antonio)

Liberal Texas Monthly’s Best: Dishonorable mention: Betty Brown (R-Terrell), Norma Chávez (D-El Paso), Carl Isett (R-Lubbock), David Leibowitz (D-San Antonio), Tommy Merritt (R-Longview)

Liberal Texas Monthly’s Best: Furniture: Charles “Doc” Anderson (R-Waco), Fred Brown (R-College Station), Al Edwards (D-Houston), Joe Farias (D-San Antonio), Sen. Chris Harris (R-Arlington), Tim Kleinschmidt (R-Lexington), Sen. Eddie Lucio Jr. (D-Brownsville), Solomon Ortiz Jr. (D-Corpus Christi), Inocente “Chente” Quintanilla (D-El Paso), Ralph Sheffield (R-Temple)

Rookie of the Year: Sen. Wendy Davis (D-Fort Worth)

Stay tuned: Americans for Prosperity-Texas, the taxpayer and free-market advocates, will be releasing their report card soon. It will be based on actual votes, bills carried and leadership on behalf of taxpayers. The AFP-Texas rating won't be subjective. Sorry, TXMO readers, we will try to set the record straight!

Pledge with Texans Spotlight: Limiting the Growth of Government

Limit the Growth of Governments

Impose strict constitutional spending restraints to further slow the growth of state government; ensure that dedicated funds are spent for their intended purpose or return the money to taxpayers; return to a true zero-based budgeting process to force agencies to justify all spending requests each legislative session; close loopholes in welfare programs; increase resources for child support collection to reduce reliance on government programs; and, end double taxation on phone bills by eliminating the sales tax on telecommunications fees and surcharges.

In the recently released Pledge with Texans, the Texas Conservative Coalition highlights limiting the growth of government as one of the key planks to the Legislative Agenda for conservatives in the 81st Texas Legislature. I could not agree more with this statement.

The best plan of the 80th Legislative Session was proposed by State Representative Ken Paxton (R-McKinney). Paxton's plan would have limited state spending to the rate of inflation plus the increase in population. This amounts to about a 5% increase per year. If the Legislature has an emergency and needed to spend beyond the 5% increase, there would need to be a 2/3 super-majority to increase the appropriation beyond that point. Any additional money that was brought in from taxes under the Paxton plan would automatically go into tax-relief funds, under the oversight of the Comptroller, which would be evenly dispersed to all citizens to lower their property, business, and sales taxes. Representative Paxton's bill, HJR 53, would have also put the caps in place on local governments as well.

The current constitutional spending cap that limits Legislative appropriations is very tough to comprehend and is easily broken every year by a simple majority. Which ever party happens to be in power choses to break the cap by voting to increase the limit on the appropriation before the budget is heard. In 2007, the Republicans in teh House voted to break the constitutional spending cap to pass property tax relief.

Regardless of the intent to increase government spending, an increase in spending is still an increase in spending. Why is this important? Taxpayers complain about high taxes. Taxpayers have the potential every year of having their homes taken by the government because of climbling property taxes. Business owners are now subject to the gross margins business tax so revenue can continue to come into the Texas coffers. Why? Because Texas spends a lot of money.

If a true constitutional spending cap that limits state spending to the rate of inflation plus the rate of population growth that also takes a 2/3 super majority to break had been put in place in 1978, the Texas budget would be about 1/2 the size that it currently is. The current state budget is roughly $168 billion and growing.

There is no better way to limit the authority and power of government and the role of government in our daily lives then to limit the growth of the budget. Without increasing spending, the government cannot grow because the government does not produce a marketable product that, on its own merits, will make money for itself. All government programs are subsidized by taxpayers. If the subsidies go away, the program will too. If the program was truly necessary, a non-profit or business will quickly fill in to continue the job and will produce better results than the government agency.

Now is the time to take bold initiatives and bold steps to create the most business friendly climate that we can in Texas. With the national economy sputtering and jobs going oversees, it is imperative that Texans give the rest of the country an example of how to attract businesses and limit the role of government to give our citizens a better quality of life for all.

Adios to the TIF Tax

As of September 1, 2008, the Telecommunications Infrastructure Fund (TIF) Tax is eliminated in Texas. It's about time!

This tax was created by the Texas Legislature in the mid-1990's as a tax to build telecommunications infrastructure in Texas. Before you ask, "Why do AT&T and Ma Bell need to receive government subsidies to build their infrastructure?" let's consider that this tax became completely obsolete by 2001 when the private companies built and improved their infrastructure to improve their networks.

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The Property Tax Dilemma

I had the satisfaction of mowing my lawn this morning for the first time at my own home. My wife and I just purchased our first home in north Austin last month, so this morning was very satisfying that I have a yard that is mine, and not one that I am renting from another home owner.

But then, as I do when I labor, my mind drifted to more philosophical topics. I first designed a new deck for the back yard in my mind. Then, I thought about how I can fix up the garage to make room for all the tools I need to buy to build this mythical deck. Then, I thought about how much it would cost to buy new power tools and how I can trim my personal budget to do so. Then, I thought about how much I will have to pay in property taxes in Texas over the life of my mortgage and beyond.

Property taxes in Texas have doubled over the past twelve years. If the State Legislature and local governments do not address the problem, property taxes will double again over the next dozen years in Texas. Texas taxpayers are being taxed out of their homes. I quickly realized it is not a mortgage lending crisis that is preventing home ownership in Texas, it is skyrocketing property taxes.

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Texas Gross Margins Business Tax is Grossly Affecting Businesses

In 2005, I authored a statement on the Texas gross margins tax while I was State Chairman of Young Conservatives of Texas, stating that the expanded franchise tax will give future Legislatures an additional avenue to generate revenue. The State Legislature in the Special Session in 2006 decided to expand the franchise tax into a gross margins tax.

There was fear among the Republicans in office, including Governor Perry, that there would not be enough revenue to cut property taxes while funding the necessary roles of Government. Low and behold, the State of Texas collected $10 billion too much in revenues ($10 billion budget surplus) before the Legislature convened in 2007. The citizens of Texas were taxed $10 billion too much in the 2006-2007 biennium, before the business tax even went into effect!

This is one section of the op-ed I authored in 2006:

In the past, the proposed solution to our problems has been to add additional taxes and spending and let a future Legislature find a solution that seems right for them 15 years later. YCT is the taxpayer watchdog of the future generation. The YCT leaders will be the leaders of public policy and in our communities in the future. Our concern with this tax plan is that it continues the precedent of allowing the government to continue to spend our tax money frivolously and resort to raising taxes as the only avenue for a workable solution. This is also concerning as there will be a new way for the citizens of this state to be taxed after this business tax is created. It will probably not be this Legislature, but in a future Session when the composition of the Legislature is less conservative, a tax increase may be likely and there is now a “third leg” to increases taxes on.

A recent survey conducted by the National Federation of Independent Businesses found some interesting facts about how small business owners will deal with the new business tax. The NFIB found that of those 790 business owners surveyed,

• 33% will not purchase new equipment or inventory
• 33% will not hire new employees
• 33% will not give out employee bonuses or raises

The survey also showed these results

• 50% will charge higher prices to the consumer
• 24% will be unaffected
• 20% will lay off or fire at least one employee
• 14% will cut health care benefits to their employees
• 7% will take out a loan to pay the tax
• 3% will go out of business