Rep. Jonathan Stickland’s Bad Bill of the Week is a fun, lighthearted way to get people to pay attention to, well, bad bills introduced by his peers. His choice last week created a conversation that was worth having. His choice this week, not so much.
Congratulations to freshman Representative Ortega for winning our 2nd “Bad Bill Of The Week” award!
Rep. Ortega was just sworn into office a few days ago, but she wasted no time at all proposing a horrible bill. HB 840 takes the bad idea of raising the minimum wage and actually makes it worse. She wants every city in Texas to set it’s own higher minimum wage instead of business owners. Conservatives know this will kill jobs, profits, and hurt our economy. That is why I need your help to stop her right now.
Please give her office a call at 512-463-0638 and let her know you don’t want to see big government regulations killing anymore jobs. Tell her to stop pushing reckless legislation and let the free market work.
I suppose in a theoretical way someone could have a conversation about local control but no one really believes that the Republicans elected to the Texas legislature support local control. Other than that, the only thing that will come of this one is that his supporters can say that he doesn’t support the minimum wage and by golly they don’t either. Throw in the obligatory ‘libtard’ slam and his day is done. Yet Stickland urges activists that don’t live in her El Paso district to call her and tell her that her bill will kill jobs, profits and hurt our economy. Like she cares.
Come on Stickland, find something worth discussing. I mean, seriously, a bill giving local control to cities to increase the minimum wage by a freshman Democrat is going to go nowhere in the Texas legislature. You know it, I know it and Rep. Ortega knows it. Sort of like freshman Rep. Valoree Swanson’s bill to eliminate property taxes. There will be no serious discussion, no serious conversation, it will simply disappear into the ether.
Much like this post will.
David,
The property tax bill Rep. Valoree Swanson filed may or may not be successful, but the “conversation” has started already. Property owners, at least homeowners, are disgusted with property taxes and are rapidly realizing they are only effectively “renting” their property from the governments.
There are many different combinations of broadening the sales tax “base” and subsequent revenue-neutral “rates” that would result.
A somewhat separate discussion (that actually started with a long-time conservative icon in Austin months ago) that would tax property sales ONE TIME, and that one time tax would roll into the mortgage amortization. The bottom line on the latter proposal would be an explosion of real estate activity as “MONTHLY PAYMENTS” (including mortgage principal and interest, insurance, PROPERTY TAXES, and other amortized closing fees) would PLUMMET. That would make all housing more affordable, including rental properties where property taxes are passed on to the tenants.
Perhaps most importantly, elderly and others living on fixed incomes, who may have ALREADY paid for their homes 2x or more (1x to the mortgage company plus 1x or more via property tax), would no longer be forced to sell and move out.
Property rights would be restored to Texas!
Cheers!
Mark
PS: Like it or not, ABOLISHING property taxes is ONE of only FIVE legislative priorities in the current Republican Party Platform voted on by convention members. Hats off to Mrs. Swanson for listening to those grassroots!
Mark,
I didn’t say I don’t want to eliminate property taxes. That is a conversation worth having. Swanson’s bill is not serious and will not create serious conversation because she only addresses one side of the equation. If she had filed a bill that eliminated property taxes and outlined how she was going to replace the revenue from those taxes, that would have been a bill worth considering.
Property taxes are a terrible way to finance government. That said, what are the options? An income tax? I don’t think that is going to happen any time soon. A sales tax? I don’t think that people understand what a sales tax of that size will do to our economy. I really don’t want to pay a $6,000 tax on a $30,000 car. Or a $200 tax on a $1,000 handgun. And what about residential cities that have no ability to collect a sales tax? Are they simply annexed by the larger cities around them?
Swanson’s bill addresses none of those concerns but it did get her a few kudos from her supporters.
DJ
David,
I think you might be a liberal, and as such I am unsubscribing from your blog.
Dang it, you outed me! ;-(
Might I paraphrase?
“David, I think you’re ideas might not align perfectly with mine, and as such I do not want my beliefs challenged or to be presented with information contrary to my opinion..”
Yes, that’s better.
“your”, not “you’re.”
Conversation appears to have started… 🙂