Texas is one of seven states that doesn’t have state income tax. This doesn’t mean Texas
Residents pay less in taxes than the states that have a state tax. All states must generate revenue and they do so through various taxes including income taxes, sales taxes, and property taxes, just to name a few. (Longley) Texas has a state sales tax rate of 6.25%, but once you add in taxes from counties, cities, transit, and special purpose districts, the tax rate reaches 8.25%. (Texas) There are pros and cons to Texas not having state taxes. Overall Texas still receives a fair amount of taxes by collecting sales tax and property tax. Most Texans pay more in taxes than places such as Californians, but rich Texans pay a lot less. That's great for rich
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Texas does outperform other states in terms of economic growth and population growth. Many people move to Texas because of the jobs and they do taxes right. (Batheja, 2013) Gov. Rick Perry believes Texas’s performance through the recession is due to lack of income tax. He says “You can stop trying to figure out how to pay the state income tax, because we don’t have one.” (Batheja, 2013) The Tax Foundation, a conservative-leaning research group, ranks Texas ninth-best on its State Business Tax Climate Index, largely because of the state’s lack of an income tax. (Batheja, 2013) On the other hand, Texas’s high property taxes remains a crucial complaint among business and homeowners. It’s harder for small business to pay their taxes especially if their business wasn’t very profitable. Small business end up using their own personal savings, mortgages, or borrow money in order to pay their taxes. Having a state tax would benefit small business. Although having no state tax is accepted by many, it puts a dent on cities and towns. Local debt has increased over the past decade, in large part to cover the costs for new schools and public maintenance projects. (Batheja, 2013) The state is pushing projects such as building of highways and roads to cities and counties. (Batheja, 2013) In 2012, more than 500 lawsuits were from school districts arguing that our public education isn’t properly
This state is a second largest state of U.S; there has lots of oil resource, also there could be the most confusion state because people allow carrying a gun in public areas, I used to study over there, and I have ardently love with this place, this state named Texas.
Texas would be the 14th largest economy in the world as a stand-alone country by Gross Domestic Product. The state is border line healthy but does have a growing GDP. The infrastructure is average definitely room for improvement. It is said that Texas is going to have 12.4 percent more revenue to spend in the next TWO budget years. I define Texas’s economy as borderline healthy even though everything is looking positive for Texas because just two years ago there were panics in certain areas of being in debt. They are now getting their state back to being healthy and as long as they keep making smart decisions and start working on the cities/towns little by little they will remain healthy.
States’ rights, the fight for the unborn and their right to life, and resistance to gun legislation, tend to be some of the top issues for conservative Texas voters. The last time a Democrat carried the state of Texas was in 1976, when Jimmy Carter won the Presidential election. During the 2004 presidential election, then President and Republican candidate, George W. Bush, won with 61.09% against 38.30% votes for the Democratic candidate John Kerry. However, in the more recent Presidential elections that were held in 2008 and in 2012, the very popular Democratic candidate, Barack Obama, did not win the majority vote for Texas. Thus, looking at this information, it can be said that the state of Texas tends to lean more towards the Republican side.
Notice that Texas State does not have state income tax? It is because their revenues are coming from other tax categories like sales tax and property tax. “When the state increases its reliance on sales taxes to offset the holes punched into the budget by corporate, this increases the overall tax burden on the poor and the working-class”(Dollars and Sense 12). Compared to other states like that of California which implements progressive tax system (collects more revenues from state income tax), Texas does not levy on state income tax. “The lack of an income tax means that the Tennessee State government relies to a large degree on sales taxes to raise revenues”(Dollars and Sense 12). Texas, like Tennessee, belongs to regressive tax states but Texas gets more of its revenue through property tax rather than sales tax.
As the largest state by area in the continental U.S. as the second most populous, Texas has its significant share of public policy challenges with which to contend. And as the discussion hereafter will show, many of these challenges serve as a microcosm of the broader pubic policy issues facing the United States. The issues addressed here below help to provide a better understanding of the complexities of public policy maintenance in a large and diverse state.
Many of the other financing problems come from individual districts that some times misuse money that could be used to better the quality of education. Assistant Attorney General Shelly Dahlberg, said that individual districts must also “show they are spending their money efficiently”. Superintendents spend too much on items that they seem to prioritize such as iPads and equipment for the sports departments and other extracurricular activities that aren’t required by the state. At times, they also base their teacher pay on seniority rather than student performance. If Texas were to stop overemphasizing on the local control of its school districts and were to hold individual districts responsible for not spending their money efficiently, there would be a lot less shortcomings and a lot more money directed into bettering the
Because if a constitution does not reflect the state it’s supposed to, everything else does not matter. Texas is a diverse state in constant change, and the constitution should be able to adapt to current
Property taxes in Texas have not always been the most favorite bill a citizen has to pay, some are large bills and some are small bills. Many legislatures and governors have played a role when it comes to property taxes and how much each citizen should be taxed. Depending on the area you live in, when it comes to school districts many have to pay taxes for more than one school district.
Texas has had a history of suing the government. Since 2008 Texas has sued the government 40 times, winning 7 times, losing 10 and 16 still being decided.
The government of the state of Texas is a difficult and complicated institution that is composed of many different levels. The question comes in to everyone's mind at one time or another whether or not to trust the government. It could be that people believe that the officials will take advantage of their power, or simply people don't like the idea of being controlled by someone who is not a family member or friend. To avoid this centralized power, the government is divided into stages and this is a reasonable ground for trusting the government. Government runs this state and it does deserve to be trusted.
Texas is the second most populous state as well as the second largest state in the United States of America (Brown, Langenegger, Garcia, Lewis, & Biles, 2014). With a huge number of people currently calling Texas their home, it would make sense to draw the conclusion that the Texas government must make this state a great place to live by serving its citizens to the best of its abilities. However, it is best not to make assumptions and in order to ascertain whether the local government actually fulfills this role we must look at multiple aspects of the government.
The Texas Constitution was amended in 1993, during Governor William P. Clements’ second administration, to prohibit a state income tax. Therefore, any such proposal would have serious difficulties passing both chambers of the legislature and then it would be subject to ratification through a statewide referendum. Texas’ lack of a state income tax seems to have enhanced its economy vitality with this approach. It also lacks a corporate income tax, which is not prohibited by the Constitution. Texas is one of seven
The state of Texas does not have a state income tax. States collect taxes to generate revenue to operate. Texas collects the necessary funds from property and sales taxes. As of 2014, there are only seven states that do not collect an individual income tax. The other six states are Alaska, Florida, Nevada, South Dakota, Washington and Wyoming. Tennessee and New Hampshire have a limited tax on individuals, taxing only dividends and interest income. The lack of individual income tax is protected by Article 8 of the Texas State Constitution, which limits potential tax in the future as well. Texas funds itself through a 6.25% sales tax, taxes on motor vehicle sales and fuel, and taxes and royalties on oil and natural-gas production. Texas has
Texas has a reputation throughout history of differing views from the federal government in laws and politics pertaining to social, fiscal, and educational issues. On the whole, Texas operates as a largely conservative state. Because of this, policy-making is often right wing. With the institution of a Democratic, liberal president, the State’s dissent from the Federal government has only increased over certain issues. One hot topic of the 2012 Presidential election was immigration. With the major increase in immigration, it is no surprise that the issue was so emphasized. Between 2000 and 2011 there was a 30 percent
I think personal income tax in Texas should not become adopted; I feel it is an immoral thing towards the state. I am against this because taxing a person from their personal income tax may leave them with less money to pay their bills with more responsibilities. The personal income tax is paid by people with the money they earn, and it sounds like a corrupted way of taking away their hard earned wages. It may feel as though we pay personal income tax, but it is not included in our income tax system. Many people still have to pay federal income tax, because it revenues them in governing its share over three federal income taxes like; Social Security, Medicare and Unemployment.