With barely more than a month left in the regular session of the Texas Legislature, it’s time for the House and Senate to do whatever can be done to reach an all-points agreement on House Bill 1, the state budget for fiscal years 2016 and 2017.
A widely reported sticky area in the estimated $211 billion budget is over which taxes to cut and how much to cut. House and Senate conferees will meet this week. From both ends of the Capitol, the budget has a ways-and-means inertia to it, with House leaders pushing for cuts in the state sales tax rate and the state franchise tax. Senate leaders favor more emphasis on cutting homeowners’ property tax rates, a job traditionally in line with the normal functions of local governmental bodies.
School districts, for example, get most of their revenue from local property taxes, and under the Senate plan, the state would have to make up for revenue lost to property tax cuts. The House plan, touted to provide some $5 billion in tax relief through other means, includes the first-ever reduction in state sales tax, with a .30-cent reduction in rate from the current 6.25 percent to 5.95 percent. Wherever such matters settle, the state’s checkbook must balance. Tax cuts will have to be “paid for” by corresponding cuts to budget items, such as health care, education, transportation and public safety.
Last week, House Speaker Joe Straus and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick picked five members each for the conference committee on HB 1: House Appropriations Chair John Otto, R-Dayton; Rep. Trent Ashby, R-Lufkin; Rep. Sarah Davis, R-Houston; Rep. Larry Gonzales, R-Round Rock; and Rep. Sylvester Turner, D-Houston; and Senate Finance Chair Jane Nelson, R-Flower Mound; Sen. Juan “Chuy” Hinojosa, D-McAllen; Sen. Joan Huffman, R-Houston; freshman Sen. Lois Kolkhorst, R-Brenham; and Sen. Charles Schwertner, R-Georgetown.
Ed Sterling works for the Texas Press Association and follows the Legislature for the organization.
