Posted on 01/22/2013 7:53:11 AM PST by Kaslin
Texas is in much better shape than California. Taxes are lower, in part because Texas has no state income tax.
No wonder the Lone Star State is growing faster and creating more jobs.
And the gap will soon get even wider since California voters recently decided to drive away more productive people by raising top tax rates.
But a key challenge for all governments is controlling the size and cost of bureaucracies.
Government employees are probably overpaid in both states, but the situation is worse in California, as I discuss in a recent interview with John Stossel.
But being better than California is not exactly a ringing endorsement of Texas fiscal policy.
A column in today’s Wall Street Journal, written by the state’s Comptroller of Public Accounts, points out some worrisome signs.
As the chief financial officer of the nation’s second-largest state, even I have found it hard to get a handle on how much governments are spending, and how much debt they’re taking on. Every level of government is piling up incredible bills. And they’re coming due, whether we like it or not. Even in low-tax Texas, property taxes have risen three times faster than the inflation rate and four times faster than our population growth since 1992. Our local governments, meanwhile, more than doubled their debt load in the last decade, to more than $7,500 in debt for every man, woman and child in the state. In Houston alone, city-employee pension plans are facing an unfunded liability of $2.4 billion. But too many taxpayers aren’t given the information they need to make informed decisions when they vote debt issues. Recently I spent several months holding about 40 town-hall meetings with Texans across our state. Each time, I asked the attendees if they could tell me how much debt their local governments are carrying. Not a single person in a single town had this information.
In other words, taxpayers need to be eternally vigilant, regardless of where they live. Otherwise the corrupt rectangle of politicians, bureaucrats, lobbyists, and interest groups will figure out hidden ways of using the political process to obtain unearned wealth.
Dan Mitchell Comparing Excessive Bureaucrat Compensation in Texas and California
I think the big difference is that Texans will do more to actually SOLVE their problems rather than perpetually kick the can down the road like California.
When you do run across a Liberal Democrat from Texas he or she does tend to be a member of the extreme nutball fringe (Ronny Earl, Dan Rather, Molly Ivins, Jim Hightower, Sheila Jackson Lee, etc. etc. etc.)
I think Texans should be careful what they wish for. One of the reasons my state has headed to the right is because the liberals are fleeing to greener pastures and Texans are advertizing the greenest grass around.
Hey, if they could give Austin away to someone I’m sure they would. Whaddaya gonna do?
We are considering moving there to add to the conservative vote, but we have noted pockets of liberals who are spouting the same drivel as here in CA.
Of particular concern is the growth in hispanic population and the future politically with many of these hispanic’s having a very socialist mindset.
Unfortunately most of the recent hispanic immigrants don’t have the hard working characteristics of those in the past..the new ones have an entitlement mentality and are catered to by the RATS.
Property taxes are based on property values. Further, Texans have voted to support schools by property taxes, not income taxes. However, there is no cap on taxes, which allows for increases in excess of inflation. That is one item to be addressed this session.
Every level of government is piling up incredible bills.
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No. Texas State Government is back to running a surplus
Texas not the only state with a budget surplus
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2976362/posts
Boom: Energy cash influx leads to a state budget surplus in Texas
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2976126/posts
I’m a supporter of standing and fighting but some places are just too far gone to save.
“Hey, if they could give Austin away to someone I’m sure they would. Whaddaya gonna do?”
I feel the same way - but - then I remember.
It is possible for a state to require an enema. At that point, Austin becomes a vital necessity.
Other than that, there is no use for it whatsoever.
The rollback rate provides the taxing unit approximately the same amount of tax revenue it spent the previous year for day-to-day operations plus an extra 8-percent cushion, and sufficient funds to pay its debts in the coming year. For school districts, the cushion is eight cents per $100 of property value, not 8 percent. If a unit adopts a tax rate that is higher than the rollback rate, voters in the unit can circulate a petition calling for an election to roll back (or limit) the size of the tax increase. For school districts, no petition is required. The school board calls for an election to ratify the adopted rate if the adopted rate exceeds the rollback rate.
http://www.window.state.tx.us/taxinfo/proptax/tx96_295/rates.html
It’s not just a Texas or california thing. Here in what is claimed to be a conservative suburb in ohio, the soccer moms here have a sense of entitlement that would make an inner city welfare queen blush. These doughy broads will call you every name in the book if you suggest they should pay full freight for the kids they brought into the world to play games and/or be in clubs at school. No...they would force people like me who ate a lot of mac annd cheese to send my kid to a private school to carry their water.
http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2980204/posts
Agreed. Between the illegal aliens flooding north, and the leftist rats from the west coast jumping ship, it will not be long before they kill Texas just like they did in California. My only hope is that we are attracting enough conservatives to counter act the scum.
“People will be hunting Democrats with dogs,” said Senator Phil Gramm of Texas in 2009.
I’m happy to take the northern conservatives in Michigan to keep our momentum. We just need to find a way to convince liberals to go to Europe and stay there.
“If Texas were to dig up Austin”
And if we Conservatives in California were to dig up SF (including Marin & Alameda Counties) and LA (including Hollywood) and transplant them next to Austin, we’d have a pretty decent state too! Actually, you could group everything down near Houston and it would work out better for both of us.
“If Texas were to dig up Austin”
And if we Conservatives in California were to dig up SF (including Marin & Alameda Counties) and LA (including Hollywood) and transplant them next to Austin, we’d have a pretty decent state too! Actually, you could group everything down near Houston and it would work out better for both of us.
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