Texas Senate's Solution to Public School Finance

The AP via News8Austin: Senate has school finance consensus

A Texas school finance overhaul plan unveiled Wednesday would cut property taxes by one-third and raise the salaries of teachers.

Cutting taxes: good.
Raising teacher salaries: good, provided they individually deserve the extra wages and their bosses agree.

The measure would add $6.7 billion for public schools. Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst announced the plan on the second day of the legislative session, saying the measure has the support of all 31 state senators.

Always be wary when every politician in a legislative body agrees on something.

The plan is touted as closing loopholes in the state franchise tax, which is the state's main business tax -- forcing all businesses except sole proprietors to pay a tax.

So in order to "pay for" the goodies of lower property taxes and higher educator pay, business owners should be threatened with the tender mercies of the justice system. They should be told that if they do not cough up a certain percentage of their wealth, they'll be arrested, have their time diverted away from productive activities, and face the twin coercions of jail time and property seizure.

This is how things are done in civilized states.

Other money for schools would be generated from a combination of a higher sales, motor vehicle, cigarette and alcohol taxes.

But that's not all!

"You! Sir! May I ask you a few questions?"

"Sure, what's up?"

"You live here in Austin, right? You buy things here, go out and drink, and such?"

"Yes, I live here and my friends and I are avid fans of booze."

"Thank you. Thank you so much."

"...why?"

"Because of your generosity and choice, millions of Texas children can be educated."

"I don't recall donating money to public education."

"But you did! You bought goods and services in Texas and a portion of the final sales price went to fund education."

"Well, while I might have decided to buy those things, I didn't do it in order to fund an entity that I think ought to be entirely in the realm of the free market. Furthermore, the money taken from me in taxes isn't a donation or charity. Those activities are predicated on one thing: a free and uncoerced choice to decide for one’s self. You don't get that with sales taxes. Since the businessmen and -women ultimately face physical violence against themselves - and in some cases their families - if they don't comply with the tax laws, most of them decided to obey the state and charge me extra for certain products. If I choose to not pay that extra amount, the odds are they won't take any of my money and eventually ask me to leave. How's that for your charity?"

"But you choose--"

"I choose because if I didn't, my quality of life would deteriorate to the point of misery. The state has effectively ransomed off my desire to live well against my desire to not be harmed by their guns and jails. Avoiding that punishment may be a choice I made on my own, but that choice lacks the virtue of the kind you imply in your objection. That kind of choice is in the context of deals with agents I consider moral, honest, and trustworthy...not the kinds of people who sit in the Capitol thinking up ways to skim more cash from society."

Details still need to be worked out.

It must be absolutely fascinating work to fine-tune the minutiae of legitimized theft, coercion, and the threats of both. Pouring over the details of which agency gets the task of arresting, which agency gets the task of "collecting," and which agency gets the propaganda and advertising...must be a bitch of a job. They sure do want it though. Every campaign season you see them slandering, lying, and begging for your votes.

The plan, which now makes its way through the Legislature, also includes a statewide property tax, which ultimately would have to be approved by voters.

Copyright 2005 Associated Press, All rights reserved.

Dirty gawddamn LIARS. You're going to tell me these fools will "cut property taxes by one-third" and then tell me they want to impose a "statewide property tax"?

Here's a solution for high property taxes: end the Texas school financing problem by privatizing public education.

Posted by Drizzten at January 13, 2005 09:05 AM