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Topic: How Texas pays the bills |
How Texas pays the bills
National Review Online, by Kevin D. Williamson
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Original Article
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Posted By:Hooverdog, 10/24/2012 3:54:01 PM
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| Susan Combs, Texas’s comptroller, dropped an interesting piece of news in an interview today: The state’s sales-tax collections this year will exceed $24 billion — an all-time high. Revenues have been up for 30 months in a row now. I have had many tussles with conservatives who in my view take too simplistic a view of the relationship between tax rates and economic growth, but here is a very good example of adding to revenue without raising taxes. Strong growth makes all of the fiscal math a great deal easier.
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Reply 1 - Posted by:
losgatos, 10/24/2012 4:03:41 PM (No. 8958741)
This should be sent to Obama since he doesn't seem able to grasp the idea.
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Reply 2 - Posted by:
oh-heck, 10/24/2012 4:11:34 PM (No. 8958770)
Oil production in TX had averaged just over 1 million bpd for 2004 thru 2008. The first horizontal oil well with hydraulic fracturing was in late 2008. Growth has been exponential and should pass 2 million bpd by when the numbers are reported for Sept.
With the development of oil has come pipelines, separations facilities, modification of refineries to capitalize on the light sweet crude, and port and rail facilities to move oil or minimally refine crude to full scale refineries inside and outside the country. The really big boom is coming as chemical and plastic companies build world scale plants to use the low cost raw material and energy.
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Reply 3 - Posted by:
Bla Bla, 10/24/2012 4:18:12 PM (No. 8958794)
Trickle-down Economics strikes again. And we'll never see this on the evening news.
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Reply 4 - Posted by:
paulfromTexas, 10/24/2012 4:23:16 PM (No. 8958813)
Texas was founded in its independence, by lawyers.
Crony capitalism, crony everything-ism existed for the first 40 yrs of statehood, and when the carpetbaggers were run out in 1876, Texas wrote an impossibly unworkable constitution, one so complex that nobody can , as of this date , claim to understand its mysteries.
But crooks of all forms are removed of any apprehensions they may have.The citizens decide and that is that.
The Legislature meets once every two yrs,....the constitution is so complex it keeps the lawyers busy....and we all live in the heat together, and it's a fine place to live.
We still have lots of lawyers....and loser pay lawsuit laws keep things even.
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Reply 5 - Posted by:
CzndCitzen, 10/24/2012 4:28:40 PM (No. 8958831)
Texas "gets it"
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Reply 6 - Posted by:
StormCnter, 10/24/2012 4:46:21 PM (No. 8958878)
Plus, #4, we have tort reform laws that have put a lid on damage awards.
Yes, oil production has a new life with fracking, but don't forget our ongoing natural gas industry. Those wells keep pumping, too. One of the wells on our ranch is more than 20 years old, still producing.
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Reply 7 - Posted by:
verdantheart, 10/24/2012 5:13:15 PM (No. 8958953)
About $20 billion of that was generated from liquor sales...watching this election cycle has driven a lot of Texans to drink and now we're all "Greeks" at the frat house in the Electoral College of 2012 down here.
Not one national candidate has crossed the Red River all year, so we've been able to skip the lectures of political gasbags like Joe Biden and we just party on! And we are chillin' the bubbly for Nov. 6!
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Reply 8 - Posted by:
Passion, 10/24/2012 5:16:22 PM (No. 8958957)
SHAME SHAME on Kevin Williamson of NRO for not understanding the relationship between growth and revenues and tax rates. What is he doing writing for NRO if he doesn't get that. Oh, wait...it is NRO...
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Reply 9 - Posted by:
Burger, 10/24/2012 5:18:56 PM (No. 8958965)
What a snarky snotty article. Sales taxes are heinous. Period.
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Reply 10 - Posted by:
john56, 10/24/2012 5:22:47 PM (No. 8958975)
I wish just once Romney would have said in the debate that the way he would increase revenue to the government was to have MORE TAXPAYERS ... more people EARNING money and paying taxes.
Not fewer people paying MORE taxes.
Or how it would be better to have 40% of America not paying income taxes instead of 47% because those 7% of people are now making enough money to pay INCOME TAXES.
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Reply 11 - Posted by:
Tom Kilbride, 10/24/2012 5:34:10 PM (No. 8959004)
If elected to the Texas Senate, I will propose a reduction in the sales tax rate.
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Reply 12 - Posted by:
StormCnter, 10/24/2012 5:37:13 PM (No. 8959015)
I didn't find the article "snotty", "snarky" or inviting an accusation of "shame" on Williamson. Texas has made choices. Yes, everyone might not think sales taxes are the best way, but at least EVERYONE PAYS THEM. There are states with both a state income tax and heavy sales taxes, but Texas is not one of them.
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Reply 13 - Posted by:
whyyeseyec, 10/24/2012 5:42:51 PM (No. 8959027)
If Barack were to read this article he would have his middle finger on his forehead while reading.....
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Reply 14 - Posted by:
Hugh Akston, 10/24/2012 5:48:48 PM (No. 8959040)
#9 - Sales taxes are the only 'fair' taxes. As Stormy says - Everyone pays - repeat, everyone. Income taxes and the reporting of one's income is heinous...and a waste of time. Schedule this, deduction that, credit if you do this but not that. Get rid of income taxes. Tax us when we spend, not when we earn.
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Reply 15 - Posted by:
ByteGuru, 10/24/2012 5:54:53 PM (No. 8959059)
As a Texan who has lived here all my life (except for a short time out with Uncle Sam), I totally appreciated this comment from the article:
"The Texas legislature meets for 140 days every two years, though some here would prefer it met for two days every 140 years."
Boooooo-YEAH!
I hate when the politicians try to fix what ain't broken. We are not all millionaires, but we are doing better than most. Now if we could just keep the liberals out ...
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Reply 16 - Posted by:
LadyVet, 10/24/2012 7:54:12 PM (No. 8959312)
Just to point out that there is fairness in a sales tax, Texas does not tax essential items: food, rent, medical, prescriptions and a few other items. There is a sales tax holiday during the year when you can buy clothes and school supplies that cost less than $100 (I think that is the limit) without any sales tax. So all the illegals in Texas pay some tax. And the legal citizens engaged in illegal activities also pay tax when they buy things.
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