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AUSTIN – The Texas Public Policy Foundation today released Protecting Texas Taxpayers: the Sales Tax Relief (STaR) Fund. This report, authored by Talmadge Heflin, TPPF's Director of the Center for Fiscal Policy and Dr. Vance Ginn, Center for Fiscal Policy Economist, discusses how the creation of a STaR Fund could help slow the growth of government spending while boosting economic prosperity in Texas. "The strong growth of the Texas economy has led to rapid growth in tax revenue. If these revenues continue at the current pace, Texas will be looking at a sizable budget surplus in 2015," said Heflin. "This presents a major challenge for Texans concerned about maintaining Texas' strong economy. To help sustain economic growth in Texas by reducing the growth in government spending, the Legislature should consider creating a STaR Fund that could temporarily reduce the state's sales tax rate in order to return excess revenue to Texas taxpayers." "One reason for the continued expenditure of every available dollar is that there is no manageable way to reduce the level of spending once the bill is voted out of committee," said Ginn. "At this point in the process, members in both bodies face an almost insurmountable task reducing spending. In truth, due to this process, spending levels almost always increase above the introduced bills." The paper can be read in its entirety here: http://bit.ly/1oGM8JX.
The Honorable Talmadge Heflin is Director of the Center for Fiscal Policy at the Texas Public Policy Foundation. Heflin served 11 terms in the Texas House of Representatives and chaired the House Appropriations Committee in 2003, leading the Texas Legislature's successful efforts to close a $10 billion budget deficit without a tax increase. Vance Ginn, Ph.D., is a Policy Analyst in the Center for Fiscal Policy at the Texas Public Policy Foundation. The Texas Public Policy Foundation is a non-profit, free-market research institute based in Austin. The Texas Public Policy Foundation is a non-profit, free-market research institute based in Austin.
Primary website: www.TexasPolicy.com -30- |
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