Response To Bi-Partisan Proposed Tax Relief Plan

The following is guest commentary from Hayden Maples, LPKS Legislative Division Volunteer.

Governor Kelly and a bipartisan group of lawmakers have introduced a tax reduction proposal and kept with their axe theme. Fewer taxes is the right direction but I'd like to see them swing a bigger axe.

With a projected $2.8 billion tax surplus forecast this year, the bill proposes roughly $1 billion in tax cuts over 3 years. You can view the details of this bill including a reduction chart and draft in this article: Gov. Kelly, state lawmakers unveil tax cut proposal on first day in session.

The bill calls to eliminate sales taxes on some select products and create a 4-day back-to-school sales tax holiday, but this “libertarian lumberjack” would prefer to chop all essential items to 0% every day of the year.

Similarly, the draft has language to exempt the $100,000 for the state portion of property taxes but that is a small piece of your property tax bill and a way around calls for a property tax cap, eliminating the state portion all together, or at least paying out on the local ad valorem tax relief fund.

There are some positive changes like removing state taxes on Social Security benefits and increasing the standard deduction.

As with all bipartisan legislation, I'm always wary of the catch and in this case the standard deduction could just be another compromise to avoid a flat income tax. Again, an overall reduction in taxation in a number of categories is positive, so maybe it is best to start here and then keep chopping.

LPKS is watching the legislative session closely, keep a look out for calls to action on this or other bills in the weeks to come!