A few days ago I posted an article about how local politicians are claiming they have to give tax breaks to rich people or else the wealthy will move somewhere else — despite the fact that more than one study has shown that this is completely false. Well, here’s an even crazier example.
The Texas state budget is running a $27 billion deficit and Republicans are proposing massive cuts to education, nursing homes, and other government services. But that isn’t stopping them from giving a big tax break to — I’m not making this up — yacht owners.
Republicans say they have to put a cap on sales taxes paid by yacht owners because if they don’t, potential yacht owners will travel to Florida, which already has a similar sales tax cap. Seriously. They claim that yacht owners will move to Florida to avoid paying sales taxes on their yachts (even though the above-mentioned studies showed that rich people didn’t move for lower income tax rates, which is a much bigger bite).
As one Democratic representative put it “With all due respect, sometimes I’m not sure what planet my Republican colleagues live on.”
What will those Texas Republicans do if Florida decides to subsidize caviar?
8 Comments
I supposed they’re not worried that the rest of the population might move because of the crappy underfunded public education system?
They don’t have to worry about that. The rest of the population are tied down to jobs and/or can’t afford to move.
I agree with the Texas Republicans. There are few enough reasons to want to be in Texas, they need every one they can get!
#NotIntendedToBeAFactualStatement
I just loved the idea of Texas become its own Nation with each country a separate hard line Religion.
County, not Country
I don’t know why the Texans are worried about their yachts moving to FL. If it’s true that everything is bigger in TX then the marina’s in FL are too small for their yachts.
I wonder how many yacht owner there are in Texas relative to the rest of the population? It’s nice to see the GOP standing up for the rights of a minority, even if it is a minority composed of super-wealthy old white guys with too much time and money on their hands.
Its at times like these when I miss Molly Ivins. It takes a good sense of humor to deal with the crazy of our elected officials, and that’s not necessarily a politically affiliated condition. I live in the Austin area…can hardly wait to see the congressional redistricting aka rohrsarch test with Austin split into about 8 districts.
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[…] this month, I posted a story about Texas wanting to give tax breaks to buyers of luxury yachts (costing over a quarter of a million dollars), while the state is running a $27 billion deficit and […]