With Texans dissatisfied with the high level of property and business taxation, the governor and a bipartisan super-majority in the Senate are pushing for nearly $5 billion in tax relief, leaving it to the Senate’s big-government Republican, Kevin Eltife of Tyler, to be the voice of leftist dissent.
GOP Sen. Kevin Eltife… doesn’t want your family to get tax relief
Eltife is the last man standing in the liberal wing of the Senate’s GOP caucus. And that’s probably because he wasn’t up for election in 2014 when the two GOP senators to his left — Bob Deuell and John Carona — were defeated in the primary.
Speaking out against tax relief, Eltife is trying to put a populist spin on his grow-government fanaticism.
“We’ve been down this road before where we promised tax relief and no one actually felt it. We need to deal with the real problems of this state first and then deal with tax cuts,” Eltife told the media.
So if he doesn’t think you’ll notice $4.6 billion in tax relief, he doesn’t want to do any at all? Good plan, Kev.
Of course, Eltife isn’t proposing to do anything but grow government. Sure, he sometimes talks a good game about debt… but doesn’t seem at all interested in addressing the government over-spending that causes debt in the first place.
Kevin Eltife’s opposition to tax relief comes down to a belief that state government can spend your money better than you can. He said as much: “My big concern is I cannot support tax cuts until I know there’s a plan in place to meet the needs of this state.”
It’s like Eltife is signaling his retirement, forced or voluntary, or a party switch. What he’s pushing finds no ground in the conservative movement or GOP mainstream. And since five Democrats are signed on to the tax relief plan, he doesn’t have much of a home there either…
UPDATE: Liberal Democratic political consultant Harold Cook threw the Democrats supporting tax relief under the bus on TV today, saying “I agree more with Sen. Eltife.”
