Tuesday, January 27, 2009

On Taxing Texans, Tuition, and Fun in the Sunshine State

You have to laugh at the deep chasm that exists between the financial policies of the governor of my home state, California, and the governor of the state that continues its grip on my presence, Texas.

Today, Texas Governor Rick Perry issued his State of the State message to the state legislature, and reversed himself in two key finance areas: taxes and tuition.

Now get this, in 2003 the governor, in foreseeing a budgetary shortfall, urged the newly Republican-dominated legislature to de-regulate college tuition, saying that it would make colleges compete for FTEs (Full Time Equivalents) and drive down college tuition.

And then the opposite happened, and Texas state college tuition went through the roof, causing thousands to have to pull in their belts to afford these crushing fees, or to give up on higher education altogether.

And now, with an almost certain primary challenge by Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison coming at him in 2010, who polls in the neighborhood of 60% in Texas as opposed to the governor’s 39%, Perry completely reversed himself and urged the legislature to freeze tuition costs for four years, so that incoming freshmen pay the same rate of tuition every year for four years.

Nice job.

And then there’s the business tax.

Over the howls of conservatives and business leaders, Rick Perry found a way to balance the state budget by instituting a tax on business.

One thing you don’t want to do to Texas conservatives is take away their guns. The other is to raise their taxes.

Businessmen across the state screamed bloody murder and vowed not to let him return to office in 2006, splitting their vote between a former Democrat and a comedian.

So to mollify the very people who voted for Kinky and Grandma in 2006 as a result of this tax, Perry is proposing to increase the gross receipts threshold that small businesses use to get a tax exemption from the state.

A complete reversal. Rick Perry remade himself today.

Contrast that to how California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger proposes to raise revenue for his state’s budget crisis.

He wants to tax fun.

Interesting that California’s number one industry is the entertainment industry, and Schwarzenegger wants to tax it.

Taxes on admission tickets to Disneyland and any old amusement park that applies.

Taxes on a round of golf.

Taxes on concerts.

Taxes on baseball games.

And for some strange reason, he wants to tax fixing things.

Taxes on auto repairs.

Taxes on repairing your washing machine (this ought to boost the sales of Maytags, by the way).

Taxes on shoe repairs.

And he wants to tax Californian hair and fingernails.

That last one is diabolical. With the exception of some of us, hair and fingernail growth is incessant, making a tax on your haircuts and manicures not only unavoidable, but also unremitting.

And here is proof-positive that the Governator has no intention of going back to making blockbuster movies when his term-limited time in office ends.

He wants to tax movie tickets.

6 comments:

Clark Bowers said...

Wow, funny how this is about Perry and you can't talk about how much taxes your lord and savior is about to spend with this stimulus package. Absolutely no mention of it, sooooooooo strange.

You certainly can dish it out, but you can't take it.

All you can do is just post pictures now about GW and babies, because you can't whine and complain about the most blown out of proportion things anymore.

Did Obama, Pelosi, or Reid end the War??? No. Bush also did pretty much everything the Democrats wanted, but you just had to have someone with a D next to there name in the White House. Your partisan politics makes me sick, and it's destroying our country.

No offense, but Obama will have far more to be criticized about then Bush.

Want me to start? There already is a list of things I can blow out of proportion.

Robert Gibbs can't talk his way out of a paper bag using his beer drinking during a baseball game analogy during his conference today. Don't even get me started about Eric Holder or Tim Githner. Talking to middle east reporters before american as his first interview as president.

I can go on for days!!!

Hal said...

Hey Clarkie-

This was all about the state budget. What does your diatribe have to do about it?

Nothing?

Exactly why you see it here. Stay on topic, Clarkie. Here you are seen as an idiot screaming into the wind.

Exactly where I want you to be.

Anonymous said...

Clark, both parties have their fair share of borrow and spending for their corporate contributors. My question is when are the people going to get fed up with them both?

Clark Bowers said...

Your screaming to the wind and "trying" to accomplish a point.

What's wrong with me actually making one?

Guess you just can't hang. You call it screaming into the wind, but thats all you did during the Bush administration.

Clark Bowers said...

PS I thought there was no name calling on your blog Halley?

Anonymous said...

I agree with Clark. You're only covering up your democrat pork bill.