“Patrick already making presence felt in Austin”
by David Benzion · 04/28/2006 6:26 amKristen Mack in today’s Houston Chronicle:
Republican nominee Dan Patrick, the odds-on favorite to win the District 7 state Senate seat, won’t take office for another eight months. Yet he’s already trying to exert his influence in Austin. [snip]
House Speaker Tom Craddick was counting on the vote of Houston-area lawmakers to pass a new business tax proposed by Gov. Rick Perry as a way of meeting a court-imposed deadline for changes in the state’s school finance system.
But they came home over the weekend and got nervous when they had to face opposition up close and personal from constituents who had heard Patrick’s commentaries against the tax plan. [snip]
Patrick called out the Houston-area Republican representatives who voted for the tax bill. It wasn’t personal, he said, just policy. [snip]
"We said if we won, we would be going to Austin to stir things up," Patrick said."We’ve already started and it’s not even January."
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I hope Glenn Hegar was one of the legislators called out.
I only hope it helps as it looks like the rinos have elected to forget about us the voters and pay attention only to the schools, lobbyist, counties , cities and state employees. I have voted against every incumbent thus far and so far if an incumbent had a half way decent opponent the opponent won. So its on to kinky and others who go against the incumbents. Maybe then we can get rid of the rinos in ‘06, ‘08 and start rebuilding in ‘10 with conservatives. williams, ogden, wong and janic should be at the top of the list for removal. Sorry Dan but your rino buddy janic needs to go.
When will the Chronical realize that a change has started. Rinos are in season. Next up Corbin Van Arsdale. Corbin, have you updated your resume yet?
One conservative among a bunch of librepublicans. Dan’s a masochist.
CFISD is already sending out “We’re going to have to cut XYZ program!” scare messages through the PTO. Unfortunately, these always seem to work.
CFISD gets 71% of its revenues from property taxes, property tax revenues have been increasing 8% each year, runs a deficit budget (the difference is made up out of their ’savings’) and spends almost 91% on payroll (information from the CFISD Web Site Yet, my kids are always bringing home fund raisers to buy library books and playground equipment.
It looks like this plan will be the death nail in Perry’s political asperations for the future. Van Ardsdale is my next target. The man is a fool.
Technically isn’t Dan a “rino”. He’s a Republican in name but first and foremost, he really is a conservative. Sort of like what Rush said the other day, there are three parties, the Democrats, the Republicans and the Conservatives. One need only affiliate with one party to get elected but act on his true core principles when in office—Dan’s approach.
Kathi,
I am not a fan of Govenor Good Hair, although he has his moments, but predicting his demise would seem to be a little early. Political fortunes can turn on a dime.
i.e.
1. Tom Delay
2. George W. Bush
3. Bill Clinton
4. Newt Gingrich
5. Richard Nixon
The careers of all these guys have risen and fallen as much as good sourdough bread mix.
The real problem in all of this mess is that the Special Session was called after the primary and not before. The Republicans in the statehouse seem to be acting more and more like the folks they replaced. If any of you loyal party members did not see this coming, well I suggest that you wash the rose-colored dye off of your glasses.
The only cure for this problem is to quit sending incumbents back to office and the first litmus test for all prospective office holders should be a test for fiscal responsibility. They love to promise action on “conservative social issues” because those issues typically do not require any sort of budgetary restraint.
I could be wrong.
Simple
#8 Simple:
Your last paragraph is right on the money. Just listen to the promised rhetoric at election time. I just “love” to hear the term in political speeches, “I will fight for you/your whatever!”
I could care less about the fighting part. Lower my taxes…personal and property, reduce the size and intrusion of the government on all levels(spending, social programs, pork, etc.)close the dang borders, start enforcing the laws that we have and quit worring about the PC crowd, disband the Department of Education. (It’s unconstitutional by the way) and on and on and on….
A good question to the political wannabees would be “How would you vote on and/or how would you pay for….(name your topic here) If there’s a rise in governmental spending (which is money they collect from you and I and redistribute)to accomplish their vote/plan of action, simply say ” Next candidate Please!” We’ll know where they stand.
#5 digital
How about that small edifice on Barker Cypress - I know colleges that would die for a football stadium like that! You must have had to buy a lot of fund-raiser cookies to finance that.
# 8 and # 9 both of you “WELL SAID”
Ditto’s
Kathi
Better watch that talk about defeating VanArsdale…his mommy is still telling folks he’s gonna be the President soon!
President of what? The butterfly watchers club?
If I have anything to do with it, Van Arse-dale is on his way out! Thank God Jon Lindsey will be gone. Just hope he doesn’t do to much to screw us before he leaves!
And Joe Nixon still does not get it.
http://search.chron.com/chronicle/openDocument.do?docRef=04_28_2006_2_Joe_Nixon&selectedPath=Everything
That’s easy to say when you know you can count on appraisel cap creep.
Joe Nixon is a joke! Thank goodness he will be out! Thanks Dan and Dan supporters for making this happen!
What we need to do is audit these school districts on how they spend our money. Look at the palaces our schools have become. But the districts still scream for more money! We need some controls here and audits by national accounting firms is the way to start. How hard can that be? Terry Lio should be advocating this.
How about any new classes and admin offices must be wooden shacks until everybody in fast food restaurants can count change without hestitation or the machine telling them what to give back with pictures.
Joe Nixon sponsored the Appraisal Cap Bill for the
past 2 sessions and has done so again for the Special. He fought for and passed the appraisal cap bill in the House during the 2003 session and was a LST “HERO” for his floor work during the 2005 session. He passed a 0% cap in the House on homesteads in 1997 and if they get school finance accomplished, they may pass an appraisal cap bill within the next two weeks. Joe Nixon has been the most effective State Legislator the State of Texas has ever seen. His bills got through the House — just died in the Senate. Whoever calls Joe Nixon a joke is uninformed.
Hey with a name like Nixon, how can you go wrong?
Has there been any talk in Austin about making it mandatory to report the actual sales price of homes? Currently the appraisal districts/appraisers have to determine the value of new homes…real or imagined. One of the news organizations did a story about how “under-valued” high-dollar homes were, especially in the Houston area. I’m certain the realtor groups and their lobbies would just about pitch a fit!
Let’s start with the local school board politics. If you are in Katy ISD be sure to early vote for the bond and school board election. By the way, KISD, is the district with the highest tax rate in the state, the district who built a new auditorium in every high school, even though we had Merrell Center and a stage in every school, the district with a 1.5 million dollar score board on a practice field at Mayde Creek high, and the district who manages to spend an extra 7 million dollars on every school they built compare to other disctricts. This is the school district who planned to build Cinco Ranch Elementary on the same parcel of land as Cinco High but didn’t because it would “block the view of the high school if it was built in front of the high school building”. Be sure to vote NO to the new bond election, and vote and vote for the Katy Watchdog recommended candidates for positions 6 (Mr Fred Hinks) and 7 (Mr Tom Law), who are the ONLY ones opposing the bonds. Log onto http://www.katycitizens.org for more information.
So here we go again they want to put on another business tax. Oh yea we are sticking it to the businesses instead of the people, they say. It’s so Democrat.
I think we all need to tell everyone we know that taxing businesses is really taxing we the consumers. Businesses don’t pay taxes individual people do. The business passes all expenses to the price of whatever it is they are selling and business taxes are another expense that they pass on to we the people, the consumers.
It’s just time for us all to get rid of every single form of taxation such as income, property, school, business, death, and every other one you can think of. On every level, Local, State and National government. Replace all of it with a consumer’s sales tax period. It would stop so many bad and evil things and keep the politicians honest. It would be fair for every single person in the country. And it would put an end to so much corruption, class envy and pitting people against people.
The greatest thing of this would be now each one of us would have complete control over all of OUR OWN MONEY and how much is going to government. And boy how the government would have to be much more transparent and ACCOUNTABLE.
Only about 50% of the citizens in this country pay 100% of the taxes. With this plan everyone but the very poor would be contributing, so it lowers and makes fair the tax burden on all of us. Instead of most of us who are now paying 45% to 50% of every dollar we earn to taxes. Now about 80% of all of us including Illegal aliens, Drug dealers, Prostitutes would each be paying about 30% of only the dollars we spend.
Go to http://www.fairtax.org it’s fantastic…
Dr. Steve Hotze, co-chairman of Texans for No New Taxes, filed the following testimony for the Senate Finance Committee. John Sharp, the governor’s Texas Tax Reform Commission chairman, makes his remarks to the testimony in parenthesis.
The Perry Business Tax is the largest tax increase in Texas history. (Dr. Hotze, how is a net tax cut of more than $6 billion the largest tax hike in history?) If enacted, then it would cripple our state’s economy. (Then why do conservative economists David Hartman, Ray Perryman and Art Laffer of the Reagan Administration all say it would have a positive overall impact?) It is a liberal money grab from small businesses to generate new revenue for additional growth of the state government (with an increase in the small business exemption from $150,000 to $300,000, and most of the money coming from corporations no longer using loopholes, how is this true?)
Instead of calling for the elimination of the Franchise Tax, Governor Perry talked about creating fairness in the Franchise Tax. Always beware when a politician talks about fairness. Governor Perry’s idea of fairness is to increase the number of businesses that are being taxed and to dramatically increase the taxes on the businesses that are currently paying the Franchise tax. (Dr. Hotze, does your business Hotze Health & Wellness Center pay the franchise tax?)
If Governor Perry and his supporters think that this is such a fair plan and since this tax is coming out of the hide of businesses, then why don’t they send the Schedule B Tax Form to every business covered in this bill and allow these businesses to run the numbers and determine what the tax consequences of the Perry Business Tax bill would be? (The Texas Tax Reform Commission did run the numbers with hundreds of companies and found it was fair across various sectors of the economy. Also, more than 60 business associations and trade groups have endorsed it. Do you think they have done so against their own interest?) Let these business owners get back with Governor Perry and the legislators to let these elected officials know how they feel. Take up businesses taxes in the upcoming 80th Legislature next year when there will be adequate time for deliberation. Now that’s fair. What is the rush to ramrod the Perry Business Tax bill through the Legislature?
The Perry Business Tax scheme does not lower the tax rate to corporations that pay the Franchise Tax, as promised by Governor Perry (Dr. Hotze and his allies seem to conveniently ignore the property tax relief businesses get in this plan, in addition to the property tax relief owners of businesses receive on their homes.) In fact, the Perry Business Tax increases the tax on corporations currently paying the Franchise Tax (once again we see him arguing for businesses that pay the franchise tax, instead of on behalf of businesses like his own that don’t pay the franchise tax. Many businesses that pay the franchise tax will receive a net tax cut. Those that use loopholes or tax avoidance strategies will in many cases pay more, but not necessarily more than had they not evaded the tax.) In the cases which I have seen, the so called “Margins Tax” is at least four (4) times higher than the Franchise Tax. The reason is simple; a 1% tax on gross margins is much greater than a 4.5% tax on net income. Of course, some large corporations may end up being exempted from this tax through special interest amendments added to House Bill 3.
Why did Big Business and many trade organizations support this business tax? Because Big Business wanted to curry favor with the Governor. (Oh really, why did they stay on the sidelines in 2004 and 2005 when Perry offered proposals?) Big Business had its lobbyists in Austin to protect its interests. Governor Perry and Speaker Craddick carved out a host of loopholes to protect and exempt much of the income of the big corporations and special interest groups in order to gain their support for this bill in the House. (There is not a single loophole in this bill, which fundamentally is Dr. Hotze’s problem because he is using loopholes to avoid paying taxes today, as he admitted in an e-mail a few days ago. There are exemptions. But if you receive liability protection from the state, you will pay taxes finally.) Each member of this committee knows this to be true. The large corporations can afford lobbyists to protect their interests and they did just that, but the small independent businesses cannot afford lobbyists to protect their interests. They expect you, their elected legislators, to do that. The small business owners are too busy working in their businesses to be here. They are providing goods and services to the public, trying to make payroll, trying to keep their businesses open.
The Perry Business Tax would tax every included business between $5000 and $7000 for every $1,000,000 of revenue generated, not of profit but of gross revenue. Most businesses operate on 5% profit margin (Simply not true. Proprietorship profit data shows the following profit margins for industry: agriculture 13%, mining 21%, utilities 23%, manufacturing 15%, retail trade 8%, information 37%, and real estate and leasing 45%), making $50,000 profit per $1,000,000 in revenue (the Perry plan encourages profitability. As profit margins rise, the percentage of your income subject to the tax declines.) The Perry Business Tax effectively works out to be minimally a 10%-15% income tax on businesses (these assumptions simply ignore deductions for either cost of goods sold, or investments in payroll.) At a 2 ½ % profit margin the Perry Business Tax would be an effective 20% to 30% tax on the net income of a business. This would be an untenable tax which would decimate many small businesses.
The Federal Government does not tax limited liability partnerships (LLP) only the income of the individuals in the partnership. Since the Texas Constitution prohibits an income tax on businesses and individuals, Governor Perry knew that he could not directly tax income. So the Governor and his cronies devised a deceptive and dishonest way to circumvent the Texas Constitution’s prohibition against a state income tax by creating a so called “Margins Tax.” Call it whatever you wish, the Perry Business Tax is business income tax and it is illegal (Attorney General Greg Abbott and former Supreme Court Justice Craig Enoch must not know anything about the law).
To make matters worse, the Perry Business Tax is even more onerous than a business income tax in that it effectively taxes a percentage of a business’ gross revenue. Each business subjected to The Perry Business Tax will be forced to pay tax on percentage of its gross revenue, known as gross margin, regardless of whether or not it makes a profit (since when have conservatives agreed that those who profit should disproportionately subsidize those that lose money?). The Federal Government only requires a business to pay taxes when it makes a profit.
The Perry Business Tax would create a disastrous tax burden on small and medium sized businesses, forcing many businesses to close (Perryman, Laffer and Hartman all have studies showing it will create a net job gain).
Business taxes always adversely affect business growth. You always get less of whatever you tax. (The reverse of this is true as well…if you don’t tax companies that use loopholes, you get more companies that use loopholes.) The Perry Business Tax scheme would deliver a crippling blow to every sector of our economy and would make Texas much less attractive to businesses, destroying jobs and putting thousands of Texans out of work. (See Hartman, Laffer, Perryman.)
The Perry Business Tax will disincentivize new business in Texas. New businesses normally lose money for the first 3-5 years (you mean, like small businesses that will be exempted from the tax because they produce less than $300,000 in gross receipts, or the sole proprietors and natural partnerships that are exempt regardless of the level of receipts?), despite the fact that they generate large revenues. Under the Perry Business Tax, these new, unprofitable businesses would be forced to pay taxes. (Under current law, they are required to pay high property taxes regardless of whether they are profitable.)
The Perry Business Tax would be a hidden tax, invariably raising the cost of goods and services to consumers. Remember, businesses do not pay taxes, people do. (In Dr. Hotze’s case, neither the business nor the people pay taxes.)
The Perry Business Tax is so convoluted and complicated (so complicated that the tax worksheet Dr. Hotze has circulated is one page containing nine lines) in its application that it will require the establishment of a Texas Internal Revenue Service to enforce it. It will give Big Business, and its lobbyists, future opportunities to carve out more loopholes. (Wait, is he against loopholes?) Many businesses will require the services of tax audit firms to defend themselves against the Texas IRS. This will further increase the cost of doing business.
RE: Joe Nixon still does not get it.
Yeppers Joe sponsored the appraisal cap bill.
From his Chron OPED
The Obvious problems is the failure of the Senate and the House to identify just exactly where the money is going, where the waste and fraud is and where cuts can be made. Nope they want to simply transfer the current level of taxation from one group to another. I predict that when this all said and done it will be another huge money grab, the homeowner will be left in a lurch and spending will continue as it always has.
The current bill taxes business even when they are losing money / not turning a profit. Is that right? Business taxes are “traditionally taken from the PROFITS, not the gross take before exemptions.
Sorry I was wrong about the caps, but ummm he still don’t get it. We taxpayers (well most of us) want
1. Property tax and general tax cuts
2. Appraisals cut and capped
3. Reduce spending
One caveat here. Voters have got to stop rubber stamping every school bond and local spending bill that comes along.
If the good Senator Nixon was worth his so called salt he would have pitched a royal bitch to audit first then create approach how to get the funds. This crap of “Well the Chronicle does not report is garbage.” All he had to do is call 700 KSEV and plead his case. But no it is the same old cart before the horse crap as always.
DISCLAIMER: The opinion expressed above is my own and does not necessarily represent the owners, management, staff, advertisers or anyone else associated with LONESTARTIMES.COM
Why should he plead his case to KSEV when
he can get an editorial printed in the Chronicle?
Hawk
I had an exchange with Mr. Nixon. I asked him why he did not bring his case to the public? His comment to me was the Chronicle would not print anything Republicans do. I can document the converstaion if you would like.
This is not about pleading his case to KSEV. This is about bringing the case to the public and getting the voters involved. He did not. There were and are other outlets other than the Chronicle for ALL Republicans to bring their case. KSEV just happens to be one of them. I am not endorsing KSEV here either.
I did a little Chron search for several high profile Republicans getting editotials in the Chronicle, including Mr. Nixon on issues such as tax/appraisel caps that they “sponsor” pleading their case to the public. They are absent.
The only menetion is statements of “OH well folks we tried” and that was at election time in regular news stories or election stories..
Argument does not wash. Strange now that he is a lame duck senator how all of the sudden he wants to let us know just how all great this new bill is.
Strange you have no argument about my statement about my assertion that this bill is wrong.
That tells me my statement of Joe Nixon does not get it is right.
DISCLAIMER: The opinion expressed above is my own and does not necessarily represent the owners, management, staff, advertisers or anyone else associated with LONESTARTIMES.COM
#26
1) Yes, please document your conversation with Mr. Nixon.
2) What “case” are you talking about?
3) He has always had Town Hall meetings in his District — I have been to a couple. He has listened to his constituents and has even pulled bills when they proved to be unpopular (EX: UIL).
4) Not only did he try but he actually fought for and passed the appraisal cap bill out of the HOUSE in 2003 AND 2005. They died in the Senate.
5) How can I believe anything you say when you do not realize that Mr. Nixon is not a Senator, has never been a Senator but serves as a Representative?
6) I like the bill for all of the reasons that he stated in his editorial. Please read the editorial in its entirety.
7)Why suddenly all of the disclaimers?
Hawk
#1 Here ya go. He was very gracious to answer my questions btw. You will note that I retracted accordingly and gave him voice without editorial comment.
#2 I am aware of his backing of the caps. Why did he not go on radio as many other legislators have and present his case….get the people behind him. You know, “look folks I have been pushing this I need for you to contact your reps”…that case. Why no Chronicle opinion peace from him on the caps. It may have gotten by me and if you can show me I would be appreciative and would modify my opinion accordingly. But he sure can jump up there and back this plan.
#3 Got no argument with this. I am well aware of his town meetings.
#4 I refer you back to my #2
#5 Sorry I mispoke I meant Rep. Nixon. Trust me don’t trust me that is your choice.
#6 I don’t like the bill. We will agree to disagree if you wish. We are both schooled on the “provisions” and I believe that the voter base as a whole agrees this a bad bill. I could be wrong.
#7 I am the moderator and contributor to LST. Representative Nixon is a political figure, the bill in question is a political issue and I am insuring that everyone that reads my post knows that this is not paid for or supported by any group. This is strictly my opinon etc. Just covering legal bases. Nothing nefarious.
BTW thanks for the exchange. I do learn from others.
Hawk
Look I have nothing against the man personally. I just disagree with him on his stance on this issue. I do not believe that any legislator has had time to sit down and consider the effects and I also do not believe that creating a brand new tax without first identifying where the money is spent and were cuts can be made is wise. Mr. Nixon is not the only representative to NOT address the issue of CUTS.
Most taxpayers want to see cuts in the taxes and cuts in the spending.
Oh and one more thing in my #15 I was not calling Mr. Nixon a creep. Bad syntax on my part. I meant the “creeping” appraisal cap. Sorry for any misunderstanding there. I would never call anyone a name.
WOW! I did not realize that you have your own
BLOG — I am way out of my league here. All I know is that I live in his district, he has always returned to the State any money that he gets to have a district office and has always written wonderful, informative letters explaining the issues and if I was a legislator I would not go on KSEV either. Also, he probably does not listen to the radio much. You alluded to his mudslinging of Dan Patrick. I do not remember any. I just remember a positive message of all the things that he had accomplished in the HOUSE.
Hawk
No you are not out of your league. In fact you are very much in your league. If I may, I cannot learn without the interaction that you and others provide. I appreciate your sane passionate conversation too. There are times when I can get so blinded by my own beliefs that I fail to see “a truth” that is right in front of me. Reevaluating those beliefs is a good thing. I have learned that I can be and am very often wrong.
I know that I have been critical of Mr. Nixon. I must say right now that he has done much good and that it takes a lot of courage to serve in a public office. I do respect the “man”. He is a good person. He and I have differing views of how and what should be done at this time.
I do apologize to you and any one if my statements were taken as an attack on his character. I try not to do that. If that is the perception I will change my style.
Thanks and please always feel free to take issue with me. That is how we learn.
Regards
Squawk