Tax Cuts or Cost Shifting

One of the most popular promises politicians, like Donald Trump and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, make is tax cuts because the so many voters immediately think that they’ll get more in their pay checks. Sometimes they really do get more each month but then find that other costs go up and the end result is roughly the same. One example of this in Texas is state taxes that should fund public education being cut so the state legislature reduces the dollars per student it pays districts which then are forced to increase property taxes to make up the difference.

Since Texas doesn’t have a state income tax, who gets the tax cuts that force you and me to pay higher property taxes? Big companies of course.

You say you don’t own property so you don’t pay property taxes? If you believe that you’re mistaken as part of your rent goes to pay your landlords property taxes and when property taxes go up you can bet increased rent isn’t far behind.

Texas used to have some of the best highways anywhere in the south, that’s no longer true. State highway and road funding has been far from adequate for so long that toll roads are popping up in more places all the time just like the controversial one in Cibolo. If the state adequately funded the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDoT) cities like Cibolo would be unlikely to feel the need for alternate funding sources to build needed roads but as things stand now they don’t feel they can wait 25 years or more in the hope that TxDoT will get around to funding them.

Another result of lower taxes is increases in user fees at both the state and local levels. Examples are: increased park and museum fees,  increased licensing fees, increased business registration fees, increased ticketing, increased fines,  increased parking fees, increased permit costs, increased court fees, and so on. 

Another way you and I pay for reduced corporate taxes is the additional costs we absorb sending our children to school. If you have a child in a public school you’ve found that a significant proportion of items on the school provided list of supplies are things like paper towels that you’d think would be supplied by the school. If your child participates in sports or band or many other extracurricular activities you’ve probably noticed the high fees expected from parents. If you’re a teacher you find yourself spending significant amounts of your own money to provide supplies for you classroom.

Tax cuts like the one Donald Trump signed into law last year often just lead to deficit spending which simply means that future generations will pay for today’s spending. That whole notion is anathema to Republicans when Democrats are in control of government and want to build things but seems to be just the thing to do when they can line their supporters’ pockets.

Every example above illustrates the concept of cost shifting, which is making someone else pay for what beneficiaries are getting; most of the time that someone else is you and me.

Published in the Seguin Gazette - February 1, 2019

Republicans should know you can't have it both ways

As traffic and the number of school age children increase cities all over Texas struggle to address the needs of their citizens. Down the road in Cibolo the elected leaders believe that in order for the city to develop in an economically sustainable way it needs extend FM 1103 which currently runs from I-35 to FM 78 so it goes all the way to I-10. In fact this idea has been around since at least 2006 but state funding hasn’t been available and city leaders have been told it will be at least another 20 years if then before money might be available.

Rather than give up and wait a generation or more for the state to find the money Cibolo’s city council decided to investigate the possibility of partnering with a toll road operation to build the extension. Now some members of the community are up in arms over the idea of tolls and spurious claims of using eminent domain to allow an outside company to as they claim “take property a bargain basement prices”.

I was a member of the Blue Ribbon Commission that reviewed the cities options for financing the extension and recommended that working with a toll operator be explored. I was one of the skeptics on the committee and while I’m no fan of toll roads we agreed that there aren’t many options to finance this project. I reluctantly agreed that the city council should explore a toll road so it can be built.

Now here’s what I have trouble making sense out of, many of the folks objecting the loudest to the idea of a toll road are also staunch low tax Republican voters. When you are a low tax state you must also be a low service state in order to balance the budget. In Texas the city can’t even legally raise taxes to the level necessary to pay for the road and still maintain its other responsibilities. Rather than blaming city council members for taking an action they don’t like; these folks ought to be calling our state representative John Kuempel and state senator Donna Campbell to tell them to raise taxes enough to do the job that state governments are supposed to do.

While they’re at it they should also remind our state legislators that funding public education is required by the Texas constitution and they’re doing a pitiful job of that too. The legislature still hasn’t fully restored the funding cuts from they made in 2011 when thousands of Texas teachers were fired and more kids were jammed into each classroom.

Republicans are funny; they don’t want to pay taxes but they expect to get high quality services like good roads and great teachers. Most of us know that you get what you pay for; I just wish Republicans understood that.

Response to Ruppert letter attacking local tax hikes

Charles Ruppert's letter published January 26 blasts everyone from the TEA Party to Democrats for failure to be outraged by local tax hikes. Cibolo residents will remember Ruppert as the mayor who wouldn't spend the money to fix potholes and drainage problems on Main Street. Apparently everyone but Mr. Ruppert understands that local taxes provide local value such as well maintained streets and drainage that prevents rain water from running through people's homes.

Local taxes provide police and fire protection and they provide as significant portion of the local school district's funds. When Mr. Ruppert was mayor of Cibolo he boasted of repeatedly lowering local property taxes. Subsequent administrations and city councils, which are majority Republican, have recognized that low taxes aren't everything. They've pulled back from the idea that "low taxes" are an end in themselves so that residents of downtown Cibolo and visitors alike don't risk damaging their cars by driving on Main Street.

If Ruppert really is so enamored of low taxes and vanishingly small government I suggest that he visit Somalia where he can experience pirates, dirt roads and cholera first hand.