...and the Brownwood shearling's are aware !

Published: May 05, 2006 01:19 am

GUY HOGUE: Fleecing the shearlings

The Huntsville Item
A shearling, for you city slickers, is a young sheep that has been shorn — removed of its fleece. Well, fellow shearlings, we taxpayers are in the process of being fleeced by Republicans in the Texas Legislature.
Can you believe we have a surplus too big to count and Republicans want to raise taxes? It’s almost unbelievable! Republicans are the folks we sent to Austin to protect us from tax increases. Texas has billions of tax dollars laying around, it seems no one know just how many billions exactly. Yet Republican leaders want more. Former Democrat — Republican — Independent Carole Keeton McCallum Strayhorn (Foghorn for short) is sitting on billions of surplus taxpayer dollars but doesn’t want anyone to know just how many billions. Yesterday — Foghorn was sitting on $2.5 billion— today she sits on $8.5 billion. Nobody knows for sure just how many billions are up her bloomers; she may pull out another billion or two before November. Foghorn hopes it will all be HER billions to buy votes as the new governor of Texas.
Republican Gov. Rick Perry wants to raise taxes and blame it on businessmen. That’s OK with the businessmen. They just nod, smile, and pass it on in their price increase to the shearlings, better known as consumers, or taxpayers.
To be fair, there are a few Republicans in the legislature opposed to the tax increase. Republican Rep. Debbie Riddle of Houston doesn’t accept Perry’s tax plan. She said, “to portray the business tax as necessary to cut property taxes is nothing more than painting lipstick on a pig. On the other side, I think some folks are buying a pig in a poke.”
Republicans Perry, Craddick, Dewhurst, and their willing accomplices, hope the shearlings do not notice that their tax increase is hidden in higher prices for what the taxpayers buy. They are probably right. Obfuscation is an art long practiced by the political class to avoid transparency in taxation. Tax-and-spend politicians tell folks they just want business to pay their “fair share” of taxes. That’s called the politics of envy.
Most taxpayers are so busy working to feed and clothe their families they don’t have time to notice Republicans are now taking their hard-earned money like Democrats. As one parent works to pay their cost of living, another works to pay their taxes. They send their children to public schools that demand more of their tax money while providing less education.
Schools have well-paid lobbyists working the politicians in Austin, seeking more taxes for schools and their educrats. The lobbyists offer politicians re-election help and even campaign funds to those who deliver the pork. Educrats send teachers out in blocks to vote for their raises, but most of the money goes to the educrats, not the teachers.
Much of the surplus in the State Comptroller’s kitty came from increased valuations of property taxes. Unless the taxpayer sells his property, it is unrealized gains. It was not money the taxpayer had in his pockets to pay the tax. If property values go down before the taxpayer sells his property, the taxpayer is taxed on money he never received— money the taxpayer took from savings.
Property taxes should not be based on arbitrary valuations, they should only be based on purchase price, and they should not fund the majority of school costs.
Local property owners have little or no say in running the schools. State and federal mandates now control schools. Therefore school assessments should be entirely removed from the property tax equation. School funding should be taken out of the equation entirely. That’s a sure way to get rid of Robin Hood inequality.
No government entity should ever impose excess taxation. A surplus is only obtained by over-taxation. Government should always operate at a slight deficit and taxation should be transparent — out in the light of day so taxpayers will know how much they are paying. Any shortfall in school operating costs should only be made up with an increase in sales taxes, but only to the amount of revenue shortfall. Any tax increases should be imposed to cover operating deficits, not a projected deficits.
This fall, Republican politicians will be seeking the votes of the shearlings they have shorn in the spring. They should remember that a lot of folks are unhappy with Dubya; they shouldn’t expect him to draw Republicans to the polls. Maybe Republicans voters will just stay home and not bother to vote at all. What difference would it make if Kinky Friedman sits in the governor’s mansion and deals with Democrats who replace all those tax-raising Republicans? How much worse could things be? Does that ring a “Bell” with any Republicans?

source: http://www.itemonline.com/opinion/local_story_125011939.html?keyword=topstory