Temporary 2% sales tax increase proposed to fund education (home, buy)

[HtownLove]

Originally Posted by DANNYY

Yeah, it would be $1 sales tax for a purchase of $10, which in my opinion isn't all too bad. Everytime I go and get anything with grocery or whatever I need to get, I always run the calculations in my head before getting to the line to pay and instead of the standard 8.25% sales tax, I omit it and replace it with 10% for safety measures and calculate off that.

I have paranoia when it comes to any kind of undercount so more often than not I over count it just to be safe.

wait, what was up with my math, why was I so far far off? I must really need some coffee. no wait, I know what I meant. I meant a 2 dollar increase per 100. nevermind

lol, I rarely use cash. I use plastic and wait till the end of the month to be gouged

[Philip T]

Figure this will be like the lottery money going to pay for education?

Guess that was educational in that we learned how that turned out.

How 'bout we disband the large mega-districts (Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, Austin) that consume money at such a high rate per student while some produce near 50% drop-outs? THAT would save a lot of money, very quickly.

[sxrckr]

How about getting rid of some of the useless state agencies we have?

Don't you love how the TDHCA continues to give out developer hand-outs, for developers to get rich by building unwelcomed new HUD apartment housing out on virgin land in the far-out suburbs, encouraging sprawl?

[loves2read]

I bet in two years Texas legislature is consider a state income tax because the educational process is going to be so gutted by this budget that people are going to be in arms...
housing is going to be in worse shape because teachers/educators will be losing their homes after they lose their jobs
sales tax revenues will be down because teachers won't find it easy to replace their income by getting new jobs

so the only place to go for new EQUITABLE tax revenue is going to be income tax--and hopefully they will make those who can pay more do so...

[John26]

They need to fire a bunch of administrators, and some of the bad teachers.

[catman]

I think raising the sales tax isn a fairly good idea, even though I agree it probably wouldn't be "temporary". An even better idea in the long run is for TX to legalize gambling and casinos. I see TV ads for Winstar Casino, just across the TX-OK border, and I hate to see all that money going out of the state. People will gamble, you must know that, so they may as well do it here.

[Wonderful Jellal]

Originally Posted by loves2read

I bet in two years Texas legislature is consider a state income tax because the educational process is going to be so gutted by this budget that people are going to be in arms...
housing is going to be in worse shape because teachers/educators will be losing their homes after they lose their jobs
sales tax revenues will be down because teachers won't find it easy to replace their income by getting new jobs

so the only place to go for new EQUITABLE tax revenue is going to be income tax--and hopefully they will make those who can pay more do so...

Ahaha you dream

[jbiggs]

Originally Posted by Lucidus

Naw, we need to just get by with what we have. If we allow the state to impose a "temporary" tax increase, then the government will find a reason to make it permanent and add more taxes later. Hold the line.

You are 100% right!! No tax is ever temporary. Even if they do repeal it before they do they will just make another one or increase another one to replace the one repealed!

Originally Posted by Wonderful Jellal

Temporary 2% sales tax increase

Sales tax increase = always permanent, don't you know your economic history ?
But why not, it's not a dramatic increase.

It is not the small increases that become a problem. It is a consistent stream of small increases that will grow and grow until they do break the back of the people being taxed!

Originally Posted by Cavaturaccioli

Why not a 2% cut in spending?

If you ever run for a political office please let me know as I will be first in line to vote for you!

Our politicians are supposedly highly educated people who seem to have a problem finding their way out of a wet paper bag! For the past decade and longer their only concern was making the people happy and hiding the costs to do this. That methodology garnered them the votes they needed to become elected, re-elected, and continually work on destroying their jurisdictions.

Originally Posted by loves2read

I bet in two years Texas legislature is consider a state income tax because the educational process is going to be so gutted by this budget that people are going to be in arms...

People will only act when it hurts them bad enough! As we can now see the educational system employees are running scared because of potential job losses and are only now up in arms about budget cuts, but only because it is going to hurt them "bad enough".

housing is going to be in worse shape because teachers/educators will be losing their homes after they lose their jobs

Foreclosure rates are already well above normal in Texas and will continue to increase even in spite of any teachers/educators losing their jobs and homes. As compared to the remainder of the past, current, and future foreclosures this group is only going to be a very small percentage of the whole foreclosure mess. Although they will help aggravate the foreclosure problems they will not be a major driving force.

sales tax revenues will be down because teachers won't find it easy to replace their income by getting new jobs

If you have not heard the sales tax revenue is already down as many people are without jobs already! The last figure shows Texas "official" unemployment rate at approximately 8.3%. That obviously does not account for the "underemployed" and the unemployed that gave up already looking for jobs. The number of teachers/educators losing their jobs will impact the situation but not in the scary amount you would like people to believe.

so the only place to go for new EQUITABLE tax revenue is going to be income tax--and hopefully they will make those who can pay more do so...

There is an even better place to raise more tax revenue that for some reason the State chooses not to touch. Why not heavily tax alcohol sales? Wouldn't that be grand not to have to drive on the same roads as a lot of drunks? While you are at it let's tax strip clubs heavily, as well as other clubs? How about making gambling legal and put heavy taxes on it? How about stopping lush tax breaks for these large corporations?

I'll tell you why they won't tax these entities and do these things. It is because taxing people, cutting jobs, and forcing the cost on individuals is far easier to hide and attempt to justify than doing these other actions.

Of course there is another way to help balance these budgets without taxing people heavily. How about just tightening their belts and getting rid of wasted spending?

Answers in blue italics above.

[loves2read]

I know that sales tax revenues have been down--but right now the receipts have been up -- maybe due to Christmas spending--maybe because of influx of people adding to our residents--maybe because some people are going back to work or at least returning to normal spending mattern...

I also don't necessarily approve of "morality taxes' because I think they disproportionately affect certain segments of society--they are really about legislating a "moral" agenda--

why not tax certain business interests more--they certainly benefit from having an educated work force and many business leaders are complaining about the sad state of skills workers have?

Why not have Rick Perry move out of that temp living situation into something less expensive--
why aren't the legislators willing to vote themselves a pay cut

What I don't want to see happen is that the Legislature votes to allow gambling like casinos or slot machines in the state--
I have seen how the money from casinos in Shreveport/Bossier City has only partially been a boon--
there is just as much or more crime--the schools are still pretty low--jobs are often minimum wage with low ceiling and attract people with skills to match

sure SOME people and business interests would make a killing but I don't know that the state as a whole would benefit--

[Wonderful Jellal]

Originally Posted by jbiggs

Answers in blue italics above.

You're wrong.

Sales taxes revenues are up.+9% in December 2010 compared to December 2009