Wait A Minute: This Plan Is Tax Relief For The Rich

[Update: I'll Be Damned; I'm Right! I just noticed the Houston Chronicle echoes my thoughts on this: “Wealthier Texans, however, would realize about three times the savings, proportionately, as low-income taxpayers, according to a Legislative Budget Board analysis of the tradeoff for lower school taxes.“It just dawned on me that, if I’m reading a Legislative Budget Board document posted on the Austin American Statesman Website correctly, that the TTRC/Perry plan is tax reform for the rich.

According to that document, the largest tax relief is geared toward those who can actually afford to pay more taxes: people and families with incomes between $82,976 and $146,804 and beyond. This is no “middle class tax relief.” It’s tax relief for the wealthiest Texans.

Again, I base that on my reading of the LBB document, but if that LBB document is true, then this entire plan needs to go back to the drawing board.

According to the document, families with an annual income of $82,976 to $104,865 would pay a full two percent less in property, sales, excise and business taxes combined. Families with an income between $104,865 and $146,804 would pay 2.8 percent less in taxes. Families with income over $146,804 would pay 3.3 percent less in taxes.

Meanwhile, families with an income of $53,986 to $67,019 would only pay 1.4 percent less in taxes.

Correct me if I am wrong, but is it not the people with the lower incomes who need the tax relief, as opposed to the James Leiningers and Bob Perrys of Texas?

How can someone honestly stand up and say this plan is worthwhile for middle class Texans?

Shouldn’t the scale run the other direction? Should not the people at the bottom of the scale get greater tax relief than those at the top of the scale, the wealthiest? And, given that this LBB document notes that this includes ALL taxes, and there will be new business taxes, it appears as though the business taxes will hit the smaller businesses (those owned or operated by the middle class) the hardest. Otherwise, how on earth would the richest people end up with the largest tax break?

In addition, this entire plan is teetering on the brink of disaster because it is using non-recurring revenue to fund recurring needs, a line I’ve borrowed from Chris Bell’s blog but one that I totally agree with:

Using non-recurring revenue (a budget surplus) for recurring needs (school finance, property tax relief) is just asking for trouble, both with the Supreme Court and with voters. Raiding the budget surplus to buy down property taxes is a fiscal sugar rush that neglects our pressing need for a steady balanced diet to sustain our public schools.

To say nothing of the fact that the property tax buy-down and other taxes evidently balance out so that the rich get the biggest cut of the so-called “relief.”

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