Kirkpatrick rips union-backed margin tax
The union-back margin tax was never going to pass the Legislature, but that didn't mean watching Speaker Marilyn Kirkpatrick tear it to shreds on Ralston Reports last night was any less sweet.
Her comments start at the 17:05 mark (watch online here), and what follows are my favorite quotes.
Kirkpatrick: I personally think that there are some technical problems (with the margin tax) that are not beneficial to the state.
Kirkpatrick: And Texas actually has put in a bill to repeal the margin tax. And I think we should step back and look at that.
Kirkpatrick: I think that we'll have some committee hearings where we'll see that 25 percent of [Texas'] revenue that they had projected (after passing the margin tax) was actually lost. We would definitely want to make sure we don't do that same thing.
These defects (and more) in the margin tax have been pointed out many times by NPRI, and it's great to see that Kirkpatrick thoroughly understands them. As the Tax Foundation says, "There is no sensible case for gross receipts taxation, or modified gross receipts taxes such as a Texas-style margin tax.”
Even after the legislature fails to pass the margin tax, the battle isn't over. The margin-tax proposal will go to voters in 2014, and the union bosses who would be the primary beneficiaries of the tax will fight for it tooth and nail.
