The state business tax again comes due Monday, and no one is suggesting it will yield near the approximately $6 billion originally forecast. The tax is expected to bring in $4.3 billion this year.
“I think it was set up to fail, and they succeeded,” said Sen. Kirk Watson, D-Austin, noting that the levy was passed to help cover the cost of a local school property tax rate reduction. “I think when it was passed, they knew … it would not cover the reduction.”
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Steve Ogden, R-Bryan, said the school finance package was a net tax cut at a time when the state had a surplus.
“To date, it’s been very successful in reducing the school property taxes and increasing the state share of funding public education,” Ogden said. “Going forward, it could be a problem because the state’s economy is in recession.”
No, going forward it will be a problem because it leaves us billions of dollars in the hole. That’s money that is supposed to be spent on public education, which we don’t have now and won’t have in the next biennium or the one after that, even if the economy comes roaring back. This will be a problem until we fix the margins tax, roll back some of the property tax cut, or both. To believe anything else is to deny the reality that’s been right there in front of our eyes from the very beginning.