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.