Burnt Orange Report

Payroll Tax, Gambling Royally Flushed

By Jim Dallas

It's not every day that you get to read an Austin American-Statesman story with a lede graf as poetically simple as "Now what?", but today was a strange day in the Lege:

The Texas House of Representatives shot down a school finance and tax bill Tuesday evening in a 77-69 vote after key parts of the bill — including a payroll tax and legalized slot machines — were stripped away.

The vote capped a tumultuous day in the chamber. Gov. Rick Perry's plan to lower property taxes and raise money through a combination of new and existing taxes was brought to the House floor and executed, a day after the governor publicly spoke out against the House's payroll tax idea.

Let's repeat that phrase - Brought to the House floor and executed. Too bad more legislation doesn't get the same treatment.

Specifically:

When they turned their attention back to the House plan the bill's sponsors pulled out the controversial payroll tax and slot machine sections, which together made up about $5 billion of the $8 billion the bill would raise for public education.

Later in the day, debate was abruptly cut off by a parliamentary rule that also killed about 200 amendments members had filed.

Faced with voting for what amounted to a shell bill and letting the Senate take a crack at the problem, many House members apparently decided no bill at all was preferable.

%@!$ the Senate!

The Houston Chronicle has a less colorful rendering of the facts here.

Now, to answer that gnarly question, "now what?"

After the bill's defeat, the House stood at ease to ponder its options. The bill could be brought back for a second vote, or the House could start over and let a committee write a new bill.

Off the Kuff has the details on what kind of creative financing might be cooked up next:

[Rep. Charlie Howard, R-Sugar Land] is proposing a 1 percent "snack tax" on beer, wine, soft drinks, chips and other snack foods in lieu of gambling. He said early estimates indicate it could raise $1 billion a year.

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Given the state of public nutrition these days, at least one could argue that unlike most other proposed "solutions", this will not be a diminishing market. Maybe we should also scale back on the anti-junk food attacks on school vending machines. Heck, if this proposal becomes law, we ought to put more soda and snack machines in the schools. May as well get the students themselves to help pay for their schooling, right?

Hopefully the food nazis won't abduct Kuff in the middle of the night and force him to eat broccoli for his trangressions.

Now, personally, these are the same guys that turned redistricting from a debacle (for them) into a disaster (for us). So frankly, I'm worried that three special sessions from now they might actually get around to passing a really yucky bill.

Until then, we've got to spread the word about the One True Solution to the school finance crisis. Pass it on!