Texas lawmakers voted on Thursday to extend a tax break for businesses with revenues of less than $1 million a year at a time the state is facing a massive budget shortfall.
The House Ways and Means Committee voted 8-0 to send the bill to the full House with three lawmakers absent.
The bill by Republican Rep. Harvey Hilderbran would continue a tax break that will cost the state almost $150 million over the next two years. Under the original business franchise tax, only companies with revenues of less than $600,000 a year were exempt from the tax.
See here for some background. The bill is HB262. Note that there are eight Republicans and three Democrats on the Ways and Means Committee, and that the vote was 8-0 with three members absent. How you can justify this exorbitant expenditure, for which there is no offsetting revenue source, at a time like this is just beyond me. Just keep it in mind when you hear every Republican in the House talk about “living within our means” and how they can’t support the slightly less awful Senate budget because it spends too much money.
Republican budget cuts to cost jobs in Texas
http://www.txstatedemocrats.org/?p=2093
Perry and the Texas legislature still refuse to be accountable for the primary cause of this mess. Perry Tax Plan 2006-margins tax.
Hmmm, raising taxes = job losses. Interesting. So how come Bush cuts taxes twice in a recession and had the worst job creation? How come Reagan raised taxes in a recession and had a pretty good job creation record?
http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2009/01/09/bush-on-jobs-the-worst-track-record-on-record/
http://www.forbes.com/2010/02/02/barack-obama-ronald-reagan-budget-taxes-opinions-contributors-rob-shapiro.html
This is interesting info.
State workers: We’re ready to bolt over cuts
http://www.statesman.com/news/texas-politics/state-workers-were-ready-to-bolt-over-cuts-1432744.html
I think the weight of businesses who make less than 1 million SHOULD be exempt from paying higher taxes and in effect “bailing out” the politicians for their bad spending. We have to protect especially small businesses profits from being swallowed by government. The only way to keep competition alive is to keep mom and pop shops thumping.
Everyone is hurting. Let those who hurt the most off the hook.
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Add to this, increased fees for driver’s licenses, continued subsidies for natural gas drilling (fracking) and the refusal to use the 6 billion in the Rainy Day Fund and public education is facing massive cuts. Republicans think state government should be run like a fast food place with a employee of the month receiving a bonus but no increased wages for long time service with little or no retirement benefits. They want to do the same to current public school teachers and education also.
Here is an interesting article on the margins tax.
Rick Perry’s Business Income Tax is Bad for Employment
http://offthekuff.com/wp/?p=36455&cpage=1#comment-50979