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i'd be for a state income taxes if my property taxes dropped drastically... property owners shouldn't be penalized for owning property. let everyone pay into the education system.
Well, I think people are going to end up getting the property tax relief they are seeking. But get ready to say o to a state income tax.
Budget-writers stretch creativity
Web Posted: 02/23/2005 12:00 AM CST
Peggy Fikac
Chief, Express-News Austin bureau
AUSTIN — In a push to find $3 billion for new education spending without new taxes, state budget-writers are looking at a combination of new fees, funding cuts and policy changes — such as allowing parole of permanently incapacitated sex offenders.
Items on the table include a proposal to levy a nursing home quality assurance fee of 6 percent of gross receipts, which would bring in $452.5 million.
It's unclear which proposals will survive, but the House Appropriations Committee chairman said the panel's determination to fund additional classroom spending without a tax bill is "very firm."
"It's one of the things we've been charged with, to find $3 billion for public education," said Rep. Jim Pitts, R-Waxahachie, so that tax changes being considered by the House Ways and Means Committee "will buy down property taxes and nothing else, dollar for dollar."
A list of potential money-savers and money-makers that would get the state $940 million closer to that goal is being circulated among committee members by Rep. Carl Isett, R-Lubbock, who chairs its government efficiency and operations subcommittee.
Isett said he's not recommending the ideas, calling them "just the first pass." But he added, "Some of these ideas will probably be more palatable to most of my friends than passing a big tax bill."
The items came from a larger list compiled by the Legislative Budget Board.
Republican leaders have backed a school funding bill that would provide $3 billion in new money for schools on top of the billions necessary to reduce skyrocketing local property taxes. A judge has ruled that the current system, which relies heavily on local property taxes, is uncons utional.
Although the proposed nursing home fee proposal died in a previous session after Gov. Rick Perry opposed it, Isett said waivers such as those granted in other states to keep the cost from being passed on to private-pay patients might make the idea more acceptable.
He also said the fee would be used to draw more Medicaid funding, which would go back to nursing homes paying the fee.
Another proposal would save $1.2 million by increasing the number of prison inmates eligible for medically recommended intensive supervision, or parole of offenders who are no longer considered a threat.
It includes a change that would allow sex offenders — who currently can't be considered for such parole — to be eligible if they are permanently incapacitated either mentally or physically.
The list includes elimination of a "teaching experience supplement" for higher education, which would save $70.5 million. The supplement was approved in 1997 as a way to get more tenured and tenure-track faculty to teach undergraduate classes, but Isett said the percentage of such faculty teaching classes instead has gone down.
"I'm going to say that some of those will be proposed to the full Legislature," Pitts said. "All of them, or most of them, I wouldn't say that."
Some lawmakers were skeptical that enough money can be found in savings and fees.
"It's very difficult," said Rep. Ruth Jones McClendon, D-San Antonio, an Appropriations member, noting lawmakers must look at the effect of cuts or spending shifts.
"We're going to have to do it by raising additional revenue," she concluded. "It goes back to, 'Which tax do you like best?'"
Rep. Mike Villarreal, D-San Antonio, the Ways and Means vice chairman, said, "I do believe it's important to turn over every rock and stone to find savings and efficiencies that we can then redirect into making a meaningful investment in our schools."
But Villarreal said he believes the court ruling will require more than $3 billion in new school funding, and that kind of investment will require lawmakers to "come up with bigger, bolder ideas."
i'd be for a state income taxes if my property taxes dropped drastically... property owners shouldn't be penalized for owning property. let everyone pay into the education system.
I dont' think Texas will get a state income tax.
I'd be for state income tax if it would help fix the roads around here. San Antonio has the worst roads of any place I've ever lived in.
I'm still in mourning over my rims.
The state is going to need a load of money for education. Any income tax right now is going to go entirely to that. No roads no nothing. I'm just waiting for the judge to come back and tell them they havne't done enough.
Hey, Manny...do you know how much of the lotto money goes towards education by any chance? I'm just curious.
Pass the gambling bill and billions will remain in Texas instead of going to Louisiana, Mississippi, and Las Vegas. This will also eleviate the need for a state income tax. Opponents are fighting the enevetable. Wasn't Texas one of the last to get liquor by the drink?
I personally would like to have an income tax before gambling. Gambling generates money, but it also costs a lot of money in increased police forces and things of that nature.
S y, no, I don't. I'll see what I can find. That was another one of those "this will stop the income tax" things that didn't work, or at the most stalled the inevitable.
I can't believe anyone in their right mind would rather have a state income tax. Wait till you step up the ladder on salary and see if you still feel the same way.
Hook, I've been in the highest tax bracket before. I have this skill that will never go out of use. Salesmanship. If I didn't know what I wanted to do now, I'd go back to it. But it's not all about money. Anyhow, I haven't always been a poor student.
I know what it is to pay a few months worth of pay in taxes.
A state income tax isn't going to add much onto that, and there simply are few alternatives to fund education at this point.
?? You think landlords don't pass that cost on to their tennants? Unless you are homeless, you are paying for school taxes. It's factored into your rent. In fact, renters are screwed because they pay for it, but don't get the deduction on their Federal Income Tax.... property owners shouldn't be penalized for owning property. let everyone pay into the education system.
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