by Peggy Venable
1/21/05

Legislators arrived in Austin from all corners of the state this week, ready to do the people's business. For the next five months, they will be considering more than 6,000 pieces of legislation and spending as much as $130 billion.

That includes a projected budget surplus which may be good news to legislators but not to taxpayers. Budget surpluses result in government growth.

Last session's budget shortfall resulted in legislators trimming the budget and passing no major tax increase.

The legislature has not always been so prudent. Government can and will grow as big as its revenue stream allows.

Legislators will hear from lots of taxpayer-funded, loafer-wearing lobbyists and droves of do-gooders ready to shake down taxpayers by demanding new and expanded government programs.

They've already heard from advocates who never saw a problem that throwing more taxpayer dollars at would not solve. One lobbyist claims Texas needs billions of dollars in new revenue to draft a budget that will "even come close to meeting the state's basic needs." And he advocates a state income tax to do it. Thanks, but no thanks.

Basically, there are two major interests before the legislature. On one side are the taxpayers, whose paychecks fund government programs and entitlements; and on the other side are folks who think that they are entitled to a growing portion of those paychecks.

It appears that the more generous the government programs become, the greater the number of individuals who are suddenly entitled to jump on that public wagon. The more people on the wagon, the more cumbersome the load becomes to the taxpayers.

In addressing budget woes, Texas is not alone. State legislatures across the country are facing soaring health care costs and demands for more education dollars and increased funding for a plethora of other programs. Some 30 states are projecting deficits for Fiscal Year 2005 totaling about $39 billion to $41 billion.

Relief can be found in spending limits. A study released last week by Americans for Prosperity-Texas reveals that Texas' recent $10 billion budget crisis could have been prevented if the state budget had grown since 1991 only proportionately to population increase and inflation.

Texas taxpayers could have received $4.7 billion in tax relief, tax cuts, or rebates; and $5.4 billion could have created in a budget stabilization fund to better handle revenue shortfalls. University of Colorado professor Barry Poulson, the nation's leading expert on the Taxpayer Bill of Rights, did the calculations.

A Taxpayer's Bill of Rights is a state constitutional amendment that would limit the annual growth in government. It has three simple elements.

Under a Taxpayer's Bill of Rights, state expenditures and debt could not grow faster than the rate of population growth plus inflation. Surplus revenue would accrue in a budget stabilization fund and a portion would be returned to taxpayers. Voter approval would be required for tax increases or spending above the amount of the Taxpayer's Bill of Rights limit.

Most taxpayers already believe government is too big and thought they had restrained its growth in 1978 with a constitutional amendment to limit state government growth. It didn't work. Texas has the 12th highest ratio of state and local government employees to population.

Example: The largest employer in Harris County is the school district, with a $1.3 billion budget and 31,500 employees. (The city of Houston is second and Shell Oil third.) Of the school district employees, fewer than half are teachers. To add insult to injury, the highest-paid teacher receives a salary comparable to the "$60,000 performance bonus" the superintendent is eligible to receive.

Maybe state education dollars should go directly to the classroom. Or to the parent, providing opportunity to select the educational environment which best suits the child.

If the legislature is considering measures to lower property taxes and replace them with state taxes, let us remember they all come from one source -- the taxpayer. Property tax revenues need to be capped, to avoid tax creep. After all, no one remembers the $1 billion property tax cuts of 1997 after local taxing entities raised rates or appraisals.

And just where will that additional state money come from? It's a predicament. The legislature should not look to "stick it to business."

Businesses produce jobs and fuel the state's economy. What you tax most, you get the least of. We need jobs.

Recently, the U.S. fell out of the Index of Economic Freedom's Top 10 list published by Heritage Foundation and the Wall Street Journal. Unlike "The Late Show," where the Top 10 list is funny, this is no laughing matter.

It appears the U.S is eating the dust of countries that have thrown off the shackles of big government spending and massive programs.

In order to be a taxpayer, an individual must first have a job.

Let's protect taxpayers with a Taxpayer's Bill of Rights.

This article appeared in the Lone Star Report.