Immigrants pay off big for Texas' economy
Web Posted: 12/07/2006 11:12 PM CST
R.G. Ratcliffe
Express-News Austin Bureau
AUSTIN — Undo ented immigrants have boosted the state's economy by $17.7 billion and haven't been a drain on state government — but they did cost local governments $929 million in 2005, the Texas comptroller's office reported Thursday. The report by Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn is the first comprehensive effort by the state government to calculate the benefits and costs of having 1.4 million to 1.6 million undo ented immigrants in Texas.
Overall, the survey found undo ented immigrants pay more in taxes than they receive in state services.
But the report's results quickly became part of a brewing legislative debate over whether it is right for people who are in the country illegally to receive services paid for by citizens and legal resident taxpayers.
Most of the undo ented immigrants in Texas are from Latin America, predominantly Mexico. They are the working poor, doing service and construction jobs. But they also will send $5.2 billion home to their native countries this year, according to the Inter-American Development Bank.
In her recent unsuccessful campaign for governor, Strayhorn said the federal government needs to halt illegal immigration. On Thursday, she said her report showed the need for federal immigration reform to make sure needed workers are in the country legally.
"It certainly demonstrates that you need a guest worker program, but you also need a fair immigration plan," Strayhorn said.
The Strayhorn report used a model that was built on how much undo ented immigrants earn as well as the return on capital from their labor to produce an impact on the gross state product. The $17.7 billion positive impact on the state's economy does not factor in any effects of the immigrants sending money home.
The report estimated there are 135,000 undo ented children in the public school system, costing the state $957 million a year. Another 3,792 are in state colleges, costing about $11.2 million.
The cost for the state supplying health care programs for undo ented immigrants was set at $57.9 million.
The state prison system on an average day held 8,931 illegal immigrants, costing a total of $130.6 million a year, the report stated.
The total cost for state services was $1.15 billion, but undo ented immigrants, through sales and property taxes, provided $1.58 billion in taxes for the state. That was a net positive impact to state finances of $424.7 million, Strayhorn said.
But there was a negative impact on local governments.
The total cost to incarcerate immigrants who commit crimes was estimated to be $49 million for counties statewide.
Strayhorn's office estimated the cost was $18.9 million for Harris County, the highest in the state. Hidalgo County in the Rio Grande Valley was second at $5.2 million.
Bexar County was fifth in the state, with an annual cost of $3.9 million.
Another $92.9 million is being spent on courts and probation systems to handle undo ented immigrants.
The biggest local cost was for indigent health care provided by counties and local hospital districts, estimated at $1.3 billion statewide.
But undo ented immigrants in 2005 paid $513 million in local sales and property taxes, leaving a $929 million gap payment gap for local services.
State Rep. Leo Berman, R-Tyler, who has introduced controversial legislation to end birthright citizenship for the children of undo ented immigrants, said he believes the costs are much higher than those in Strayhorn's report.
Citing a study done by the conservative Lone Star Foundation, Berman said the total cost to the state is $4.5 billion a year to provide services to immigrants, but he said they pay just $1 billion in tax collections.
"This is the net loss to the taxpayers of the state," he said.
Berman said he also supports a guest worker program because the immigrants are needed for the economy. But he said he does not want them to receive any state or local services that are not mandated by federal law.
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I can understand how they guestimate sales tax, but how did they guestimate property tax? I do not pretend to know the finer points of the law, but being undo ented would preclude an individual from buying a house, would it not? Maybe they assume that rent covers mortgage and escrow? That would be a round-about way to argue that illegal aliens pay taxes like everyone else. Can anyone clarify this particular line item?
They can buy homes with fraudulent identification papers... the same ones that allow them to work...
I read the article this morning. It certainly doesn't tell the whole truth IMO.
Other research certainly doesn't agree with it.
"State Rep. Leo Berman, R-Tyler, who has introduced controversial legislation to end birthright citizenship for the children of undo ented immigrants, said he believes the costs are much higher than those in Strayhorn's report.
Citing a study done by the conservative Lone Star Foundation, Berman said the total cost to the state is $4.5 billion a year to provide services to immigrants, but he said they pay just $1 billion in tax collections.
"This is the net loss to the taxpayers of the state," he said."
Like most things put out by "research" groups they are best taken with a grain
of salt.
Even research groups gotta get paid. Who doesn't think that pay is directly related to their research output? Grain of salt indeed.
^^You are very right. They like Professors in higher education are rated on their
output of research papers. Hence in higher education you have aides doing most
of the teaching and professors doing most of the preaching.
Huh! That is why I am working towards my doctorate. I'm tired of the theoretical pontificating of professors who have no practical application outside of academia. But I'll not hijack this thread, so back to the Texas economy.
^^It's booming and screwing up the Texas I knew and liked. Damned air conditioning
started the whole thing. When we had our own global warming no wanted to come
here except those that were born and raised here.
Good roads, no traffic, lots of ice cream and cold watermelons in the summer and
visiting in the yards with neighbors. And some of the stories the old folks could
tell.
I find it ironically humorous how much "Yankee flight" there is to the Southeast and Southwest states. This decade Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York all lost electoral votes, while California, Arizona, Texas, Florida, Georgia and North Carolina all gained electoral votes. Texas actually gained the most votes. Everybody wants to be a Texican now.
Yeah, I know. They like(ed) the low cost of living, no taxes and brought
high cost of living, their liberal ideas and more taxes with them. Now you know
the rest of the story.
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