GOP lawmaker makes pitch for sales tax increase
On the heels of last week’s announcement that Gov. Greg Abbott, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and House Speaker Dennis Bonnen want to raise the state sales tax to buy down property tax rates, the details of one proposal came into clearer focus Wednesday.
State Rep. Dan Huberty, R-Houston, the House Public Education Committee chairman, presented to the House Ways and Means Committee legislation that would increase the state sales tax by 1 percentage point and use 80% of the increased revenue generated to lower the property tax that school districts levy. The rest of the additional revenue would go into districts’ coffers.
House Joint Resolution 3 would require approval from two thirds of both chambers and then would go to Texas voters in November.
“Bottom line is Texans are tired of their property taxes funding the biggest portion of public education,” Huberty told the committee. “This legislation gives a choice to your constituents and lets them decide if this is what they want to do. All I’m asking you to do is pass this bill out of the committee and hopefully get it off the floor so we go to our voters and say we recognize and understand how significant property taxes are going up.”
Read more: https://www.amarillo.com/news/20190418/gop-lawmaker-makes-pitch-for-sales-tax-increase/1
Regressive taxes and a bloated Rainy Day Fund are Republican policies.
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