Governing Magazine: TX Republicans, Tax Cuts and Tax Revenue

Governing Magazine looks at the tax interests of  Texas legislators; Phil King; Craig Estes;  Dan Patrick; Greg Abbott. Highlights: 

•  “Making sure that government tightens its belt will be a — if not the — priority of the session,” says Phil King, national chair of the conservative American Legislative Exchange Council.
• On Business Taxes:
  • Greg Abbott, the incoming governor, has expressed support for modifying or eliminating the business franchise tax, which accounts for 10 percent of the state’s revenues. “The question is, can we afford to get rid of it?” says state Sen. Craig Estes. “We’re crunching the numbers and I think the answer is yes.”
• On Property Taxes:
  • “Maybe so, but there’s competition for those dollars, even among tax-cut true believers. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who presides over the state Senate, is more interested in reducing the burden on property taxpayers than on businesses.”
• On Transportation Funding:
  • “Texas voters approved a measure that will redirect a share of the state’s energy revenues from its rainy day fund, devoting them to roads instead. That is expected to increase the state’s infrastructure budget by $1.7 billion in 2015 alone. But given increasing demands, “that gets us only halfway, at best, to where we need to be,” says King. “We’re probably still at least a couple billion a year short on transportation funding, and that’s a conservative estimate.”   Governing