Mike Toomey Texas Lobbyist News: How Texas Manages to Pay its Bills
The following is a digest of an article originally appearing at the National Review. The Texas Lobby Group is publishing this summary as a public service for Texas Government officials, Texas lobbyists, Texas politicians, and other interested parties.
Texas is well known for not having an income tax for it’s and minimal business regulations. This draws workers and business of all sizes. Texas also has a remarkable economy; it’s currently the largest in the country and has been for quite some time. How does Texas pay for it’s costs and still keep a balanced budget? With such low taxes, a lot of it is due to a reflection in low spending. There are many state programs, including social services, that are perhaps not the best due to this trend in low spending. Like most places Texas has it’s strengths and weaknesses.
“The state’s current sales tax rate is 6.25 percent and is imposed on all retail sales, leases and rentals of goods purchased in the state, and taxable services. There are a handful of goods and services exempt from taxation, including food for home consumption, over the counter medicine, and legal and medical services. When the state’s budget was adopted in mid-2009, state sales taxes were expected to generate $77.7 billion or 43 percent of total state revenue. This estimate represents the largest share of state revenue. However, sluggish economic growth and less-than-expected tax collections may have dampened this outlook somewhat.”
Besides taxes and state run organizations, Texas also generates revenue from many smaller, more easily forgotten places. It receives a great deal of money from the lottery, land income, fees, fines, penalties, and federal receipts. The Texas lottery alone accounts of over 3.2 billion dollars annually. Sales and Business taxes account for a huge bulk of revenue. In 2009, the state was expected to bring in over 77.7 billion in Sales taxes alone. The Franchise tax pulls in almost 9 billion annually, about 11% of the state’s tax revenue.
Texas is seen by many as an excellent example for how to succeed economically and financially. This is success on a statewide level, and in individual citizen’s lives. Many have relocated to Texas, in hopes of finding better jobs and an improved living situation. These people often find it.