As the Texas legislature is pushing through major budget cuts, I think it's important to understand why we need tax funded social services in our society and what we stand to loose by cutting these services. I personally admire the effort on the part of the GOP to move towards a balanced budget. While I think increased spending is necessary during times of crisis and economic downturn, I think the default state of the budget needs to be sustainably balanced. However, I disagree with the GOP on how this should be done. While there is certainly room for making cuts and streamlining a certain amount of bureaucracy, I tend to think that a major component of balancing the budget needs to come in the form of increased revenue, namely taxes.
In Texas, it's no secret that a politician mentioning a tax hike is committing political suicide. This is understandable; people want to hold on their money! We want to buy things to enrich our lives and be able to provide for our families. In my mind though, there is no greater way to enrich our lives or provide for our families future than to ensure a better tomorrow for the society we live in. If I have a family, I want them to be raised in an affluent society with low crime rates and high graduation rates. Living in a healthier society will yield benefits for everyone.
I think quite often, the value of education, social programs, and even entitlements are overlooked for the immediacy of saving a buck. Like any other investment, the taxes we pay to improve our society do not always provide immediate returns. However, in the long run, serious social change is going to cost money. If we want the society around us to be a nicer place, it will come at a price.
But I don't think we look at taxes in that way-- at least not in Texas. Instead of looking at taxes as an investment, many people see it as an unnecessary burden. As the Texas legislature moves to close a $27 billion deficit by making huge cuts to education, healthcare, and environmental protection, we need to be asking ourselves how these cuts will affect the future of our society. Will that extra bit of income we save on taxes really matter if the society we live in is poorly educated, sick, and polluted?
I'm writing to support Van Anderson's blog post defending the use of increased tax revenue as a solution to Texas's current financial crisis. There are still a lot of people out there who treat taxes like this bonus check they get every Spring to go buy plasma televisions and high-heel shoes. If only ignorance weren't so blissful. And yes, I do see the comedy in the fact that I am writing this on April 15th.
ReplyDeleteOne question that does come to mind though, when considering these tax increases, is where exactly they will come from in a state that has no income tax. And by all means I am not saying that I think Texas should have a state income tax: not at all! However I do feel that some of the more ridiculous agricultural and business tax exemptions could stand a good once-over. I don't think that the answer lies so much in increasing the number and scope of taxes that the state levies, I think the answer is in reducing the exceptions in who has to pay those taxes.
Property taxes specifically are a source of real embarrassment in rural parts of Texas. My parents, who own property in the Hill Country, have turned their land into a Nature Conservancy designated forest and wildlife preserve, planting and cultivating hundreds of native species of trees, plants, and grasses to, effectively, keep Texas Texas. They pay full price on their property taxes. However their next door neighbor, a weekender who bought eight cows who eat his land down to soil which washes away and leaves his land barren, gets an agricultural exemption on his property taxes. Clearly there is something wrong with that picture!
So while I agree with Van that more taxes need to be collected in order to meet our fiscal needs in Texas, I would caution that the best way to do so is to make more people responsible for paying the taxes that already exist, rather than creating new taxes or increasing the taxes upon the middle-class, hardworking people of this state who are already bearing a greater share of the responsibility and just trying to get by.
Thanks Van for the insightful post.