Mixing God, Taxes, and Education

News8Austin: Senator, religious leaders support income tax for school finance

Texas Impact and other religious groups organized "Funding the Future of Texas."

Sen. Eliot Shapleigh, D-El Paso, shared his message with Texans. The First United Methodist Church in downtown Austin is one of 40 stops the senator has made in the past year.

[...]

Education is the number one industry in Texas. It employs more people and requires more money than any other industry, so Shapleigh said it should have its own pool of taxpayer money.

"You lower the property tax very significantly, down to from about $1.50 to $.15, and you go to a flat tax, an income tax dedicated to one thing, which is education," he said.

Because paying for your own education out of your own pocket is something completely unacceptable, right? Because it's better to coerce and steal money from a bunch of people, right? Bastards.

But the session ended with no replacement for the current Robin Hood system that takes property tax money from wealthier school districts and gives it to poorer ones.

Education experts at the forum support a personal income tax; Texas is one of nine states without one.

And it damn sure better not get one! Thinking you have Gawd on your side doesn't mean a whit to me, either.

"That limits us to being able to only tax property and tax consumption, and when the economy constricts and values go down and people don't have money to spend buying things, then revenues fall even though the needs in the state do not decline," Louis Malfaro of Education Austin said.

Copyright ©2004TWEAN News Channel of Austin, L.P. d.b.a. News 8 Austin

You are a thug, Mr. Malfaro. It isn't enough that the state taxes away wealth from us for merely owning land and home and for buying certain goods and services. It isn't enough for you and the organization you belong to. "Putting education first" is it's slogan, eh? You are certainly living up to it: by putting it first, you put our freedom to associate and freedom to accumulate wealth behind it. Why don't you demonstrate your commitment to your cause and give away everything you own?

I'll say it once more. Oppose all state income tax plans!

Posted by Drizzten at July 01, 2004 05:37 PM