I found it very interesting that the paper chose to run a poll at the same time concerning taxes.  The results were published this past week.  The question was: ” Do you think property taxes are necessary for our government bodies?” The responses were as follows:  “30%  Yes, that’s how they pay thier bills.” (These people obviously did not understand the TPPF Study results.) 40%  “No, they raise enough through sales taxes.”  Finally, 27%  “Taxes should be against the law across the board.” 

 While I recognize that the last  answer is some what unrealistic, it does express the frustration citizens are feeling toward their government. Nearly 70% of those polled, are hostile to property taxes and taxes in general.  While this poll is not scientific, and was conducted in a rural setting, I believe it reveals an important prevailing attitude among those who will be going to vote in the  March 2nd primary.  While they are trying very hard to portray themselves as conservatives and less government and less taxation candidates,  the records of KBH and RP tell a very different story.  I believe this poll is very indicative of the success the Medina campaign may experience on election night, no matter how hard the media tries to down play her chances.

It was reported that Proposition 2, 3, and 11 started out with the best of intentions. However, the final language for these Amendments is so convoluted, that one speaker stated that we will not know if they are good or bad, “until the courts decide.” In my opinion, that is a disgrace and a total failure on the part of our elected representatives

One exciting presentation came from former Representative Talmadge Heflin. He discussed a TTPF sponsored study which confirms that government funded by property taxes is oppressive and discourages economic growth and job creation. The study described benefits of abolishing our current property tax system and funding government with a broad based sales tax.

I later called Mr. Heflin to thank him for sharing this information.  He said there is increased interest among some legislators to consider such an option, but it needs major discussion to make sure such a program is properly implemented, and not just replacing one bad tax system with another bad system.

The first time I actually heard about the TTPF study was when Debra Medina, candidate for governor of Texas, quoted numbers from this study showing that if we expanded the current tax base, we could abolish all property taxes, actually lower the current sales tax rate and still generate the same amount of revenue.