A Good Idea That Won't Happen - A Texas State Income Tax

The picture above is of State Representative Lon Burnam (D-Fort Worth). Rep. Burnam is one of the most progressive legislators in Texas -- if not the most progressive. For several legislative sessions, he has fought for fairness and justice for all Texans -- and one of the issues he has fought for is a fairer tax system.

Currently, Texas has one of the most regressive tax systems of any state, relying mostly on a state sales tax, property taxes, and various licensing fees to fill the state coffers. This means the poor and most workers pay a significant percentage of their total income in taxes, while the rich (who can better afford to pay taxes) pay only a microscopic portion of their income in taxes. It's not fair, but it's what the Republicans want -- and they control all statewide offices and huge majorities in both houses of the legislature. And these Republicans think protecting the rich from taxation is much more important than tax fairness.

They demonstrated this in the last legislative session by drastically slashing education funds (even though Texas already had the lowest per pupil funding for schools of any state in the nation). They also slashed funds for programs that help the elderly, children, the poor, and cut services for other programs that help ordinary Texans. And what they couldn't cover by cutting services, they shoved on down the road to the next legislative session -- especially funds for Medicaid and education. When the next legislature meets in early 2013, they will face a budget shortfall of at least $17 billion -- and that could grow even larger.

Rep. Burnam thinks enough is enough. We must stop kicking our bills down the road and pay them -- and adequately fund education and other services needed by the citizens of Texas. And to do that he is once again proposing a state income tax. His proposal would only tax Texans making $100,000 a year or more. In the last session, Burnam proposed the tax for everyone making more than $1,000,000, so the $100,000 quoted in this article may be a misprint. But even if it's $100,000, that is less than 20% of the Texas population, meaning more than 80% of the state population would not be affected by Burnam's proposal.

Rep. Burnam says, "This is the fairest tax because right now the wealthiest 1 percent are not paying their fair share. That's why we're in this hole. The only way to finance the state's needs is a fair tax, and the income tax is the solution."

It won't happen of course. Just the thought of taxing the rich makes Republican legislators go screaming into the night. I doubt if Burnam's proposal will even make it out of committee. But it's still a good idea. It's time for the rich to start paying some taxes in Texas. They've had a free ride (on the back's of workers) for far too long.