Author Topic: Sales tax increase dies in Texas Legislature  (Read 685 times)

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Online Elderberry

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Sales tax increase dies in Texas Legislature
« on: May 08, 2019, 11:29:49 am »
Houston Chronicle by Jeremy Wallace May 7, 2019

A plan to increase the state’ sales taxes to among the highest in the nation in order to cut property taxes is dead.

Just four days after Gov. Greg Abbott, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and House Speaker Dennis Bonnen expressed confidence they had the votes to do it, the Texas House gave up, postponing any debate on the measure until January 2021, the next time the Texas Legislature meets.

The House action comes a day after the Senate also rejected the tax swap, pulling the proposal from a school finance bill.

It was a dramatic reversal of fortune for the top three GOP leaders, who were aiming to make a big splash on property tax reforms after years of complaints of a lack of progress on the issue despite strong Republican majorities in the Texas Legislature. While Abbott and Patrick, particularly, have made property tax relief core parts of the campaigns for office, they have not been able to secure clear across-the-board victories to lower taxes. The tax swap was seen by some as the type of bold proposal that would result in truly lower bills, even if it meant the first sales tax increase since 1990.

Abbott and the other leaders had called for raising the state portion of the sales tax from 6.25 percent to 7.25 percent, which would have tied California for the highest sales tax.. Combined with local-option sales tax increases, the rate would be 9.25% in most of Texas. The revenue from that tax — approximately $5 billion a year — would have gone to reduce property taxes.

A state analysis of the plan may have been the key in killing it off. That analysis showed people making less than $100,000 faced tax increases under the proposed swap, while the wealthy and businesses would have reaped the most benefit.

More: https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/politics/texas/article/Sales-tax-increase-dead-in-Texas-Legislature-13826589.php

Offline IsailedawayfromFR

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Re: Sales tax increase dies in Texas Legislature
« Reply #1 on: May 08, 2019, 01:04:55 pm »
I see no problem here.
No punishment, in my opinion, is too great, for the man who can build his greatness upon his country's ruin~  George Washington

Offline Sanguine

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Re: Sales tax increase dies in Texas Legislature
« Reply #2 on: May 08, 2019, 02:27:44 pm »
So, no genuine property tax reform and relief.   **nononono*

Offline Bigun

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Re: Sales tax increase dies in Texas Legislature
« Reply #3 on: May 08, 2019, 02:30:31 pm »
So, no genuine property tax reform and relief.   **nononono*

We have far too many Democrats in Republican clothing for that to happen.
"I wish it need not have happened in my time," said Frodo.

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Offline XenaLee

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Re: Sales tax increase dies in Texas Legislature
« Reply #4 on: May 08, 2019, 03:03:51 pm »
Dead as it should be.   We all know that there would have been no property tax relief (despite all the usual pinky swears) to offset the new sales tax increase.  We Texans don't fall for that BS.  But nice try.
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Offline IsailedawayfromFR

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Re: Sales tax increase dies in Texas Legislature
« Reply #5 on: May 08, 2019, 09:56:06 pm »
I am never in support of tax increases until spending decreases are made first.

I could possibly settle for a complete top to bottom justification of all current spending first.  But when has that ever happened?

And I do not care the excuse given we need the new taxes. 
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Online Elderberry

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Re: Sales tax increase dies in Texas Legislature
« Reply #6 on: May 09, 2019, 11:50:48 am »
https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/articles/news/politics/2019/05/08/332385/in-a-surprising-turn-texas-house-opts-to-delay-consideration-of-sales-tax-swap-legislation-until-2021/

Quote
In A Surprising Turn, Texas House Opts To Delay Consideration Of Sales Tax Swap Legislation Until 2021

Gov. Greg Abbott and other legislative leaders endorsed the sales tax increase, intended to help fund ongoing cuts to school district taxes. But it has been effectively killed this session.

A proposal to pay for long-term school district tax cuts by raising the state sales tax, endorsed by Texas’ top three political leaders, could be dead after the House delayed a vote on it Tuesday.

State Rep. Dan Huberty, the top public education leader in the Texas House, tabled until 2021 — the next legislative session — House Joint Resolution 3 and the accompanying House Bill 4621, which would ask voters to increase the state sales tax by one penny to buy down school district property taxes. The Houston Republican’s move came the day after the Senate, headed by a lieutenant governor who had endorsed the proposal, stripped such a provision from its version of the school finance bill in what was perhaps a signal that the measure would be dead in the upper chamber anyway.

Despite Tuesday’s postponement, the idea could still be revived this session; lawmakers could use a different bill as a vehicle to fund school district tax cuts.

Huberty criticized members of the Senate on Tuesday who “have spent their whole careers calling for property tax relief” but did not vote for the school finance measure the day before. And he repeatedly affirmed questions by House colleagues that suggested state Sen. Paul Bettencourt, the Houston Republican who leads the upper chamber’s property tax committee, had failed to take responsibility for coming up with a viable mechanism for property tax cuts when he was part of a school finance commission last year and during the current legislative session.

Bettencourt has arguably been the most vocal GOP senator opposed to the tax swap proposal, a position that has caught some by surprise since he’s closely aligned — both personally and professionally — with Republican Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who has made clear he supports the measure. Bettencourt marked himself “present, not voting” on the school finance bill Monday, while the majority of the upper chamber approved the legislation. And on Tuesday morning, ahead of business in both chambers, Bettencourt took to Facebook to once again reiterate his opposition to the tax swap, saying there is “simply no need to raise taxes even higher.”

In response to House members’ criticisms, Bettencourt said he’s long been clear about his concern that the tax swap proposal could amount to a tax increase. When Huberty proposed that the tax swap devote 80% of the new sales tax revenue to property tax cuts and the remainder to public school funding, for example, “I immediately red-flagged that,” Bettencourt said.

More at link.

Offline Bigun

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Re: Sales tax increase dies in Texas Legislature
« Reply #7 on: May 09, 2019, 01:16:44 pm »
Nothing surprising about that at all! 


Business as usual and taxpayers of Texas take it in the shorts yet again!
"I wish it need not have happened in my time," said Frodo.

"So do I," said Gandalf, "and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us."
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Offline Bigun

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"I wish it need not have happened in my time," said Frodo.

"So do I," said Gandalf, "and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us."
- J. R. R. Tolkien

Offline Hoodat

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Re: Sales tax increase dies in Texas Legislature
« Reply #9 on: May 09, 2019, 02:36:09 pm »
               Taxed Enough Already

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Online catfish1957

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Re: Sales tax increase dies in Texas Legislature
« Reply #10 on: May 09, 2019, 02:43:56 pm »
Dead as it should be.   We all know that there would have been no property tax relief (despite all the usual pinky swears) to offset the new sales tax increase.  We Texans don't fall for that BS.  But nice try.

Agreed.  Especially since local entities basically control property tax rates. 

Furthermore, when is the last time you ever heard of one tax being increased to lower another (successfully)?

OTOH....   IF this could be done (with 100% proof), I'd support.  High time we property owners stop taking the brunt instead on renters and visitors.
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Offline XenaLee

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Re: Sales tax increase dies in Texas Legislature
« Reply #11 on: May 09, 2019, 03:44:38 pm »
Agreed.  Especially since local entities basically control property tax rates. 

Furthermore, when is the last time you ever heard of one tax being increased to lower another (successfully)?

OTOH....   IF this could be done (with 100% proof), I'd support.  High time we property owners stop taking the brunt instead on renters and visitors.

Whenever the property taxes go up.... those owning rental property go up on the rent to cover their loss.  So renters get their share of the pain, too....with nothing left over to show for it.  I know, I rented for decades.  It's a dead end.
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You can vote your way into socialism, but you have to shoot your way out of it.