The Galveston Daily News reports the new business tax is squeezing small business, the engine of the economy and job creation. Dickinson’s Mark Fehrle, who owns a 14-person elevator company, was “floored”” to find out he would have to pay between $15,000 and $18,000 in taxes, more than three times what he owed under the old franchise tax. Meanwhile, State Rep. Craig Eiland (D-Galveston) is quoted as saying a half cent increase in the state sales tax will have to be passed next session in order to dump another $6.1 billion dollars into the government schools. This prognostication comes as over 100 school districts are asking voters to approve costly new bonds that in many cases will raise property tax rates, offsetting much and in some cases virtually all of the recent state rate cuts.
Texas’ economy has outpaced the national average in the last decade because we have remained a RELATIVELY low-tax, low-spending state, but it appears that we are increasingly on a path to strangle the golden goose – the private sector that has been responsible for the state’s prosperity.
