Taxes, Who Needs Them? Certainly Not Texas!

[Diego in Seattle]

They would only be wasted on things like repairing infrastructure project items like bridges.

It's obvious that the Texas political leadership's starving of the educational programs is having an effect. They're now incapable of learning a lesson from other's mistakes...like the one in MN on I-35W seven & a half years ago.

Everything is bigger in Texas...including the stupidity.

[Left Seater]

Wow, just wow. It has been awhile, like three days since someone kicked their own ass here so badly.

You do understand that the bridge that collapsed was under construction and was hit by a truck that was taller than its permitted height? Actually, you prolly didn't know that and just saw an opportunity to bash something and instead of getting the whole story you just started firing.

Hell even the picture in the story you linked us up too shows a construction scene.


Huge swing and a miss.

[Diego in Seattle]

My bad.

I guess it's another fine example of worker quality coming from a right-to-work state.

Or was it a case of the state not having the funding for proper signage?

[Bucmonkey]

Or a dumbfuck truck driver...

[Shlomart Ben Yisrael]

My bad.

I guess it's another fine example of worker quality coming from a right-to-work state.

Or was it a case of the state not having the funding for proper signage?

That's stretching it...

[Left Seater]

My bad.

I guess it's another fine example of worker quality coming from a right-to-work state.

Or was it a case of the state not having the funding for proper signage?

Wrong and wrong.

Or a dumbfuck truck driver...

Winner winner. Clearance was signed for for 14' 1". Anything over 14' needs a permit which the driver had, but his load was 14' 7" high. The insurance company for the motorist that was killed will likely put the trucking company out of business.

[smackaholic]

My bad.

I guess it's another fine example of worker quality coming from a right-to-work state.

Or was it a case of the state not having the funding for proper signage?

And DiS lands another Chuck Norris quality roundhouse KthOA.

Everybody knows that unionization makes people smarter.

Don't they?

[Shlomart Ben Yisrael]

Everybody knows that unionization makes people smarter.

Don't they?

It makes them smart enough to keep Rich Uncle Pennybag's boot off their necks. (ie: smarter than you...not that that's such a great accomplishment)

[Left Seater]

Unions = mediocrity


Pay me not based on my merits, instead pay me based on years of service. Unless someone is lazy why would you put up with that?

Take two widget makers. Widget maker A has been on the job for 22 years and produces 100 widgets per hour. His salary is $45,000.

Widget maker B has been on the job for 8 months and produces 125 widgets per hour. His salary is $30,000.

What incentive does B have to work harder? What are his union dues doing to help him?


I have had multiple opportunities to join a union and passed each time. I also do what I can to hire non Union folks and to buy non Union American made when possible.

[smackaholic]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the interstate highway system the responsibility of the U.S. Government?

you're wrong.

States take care of their highways. They do receive fed dollars and the feds do stick their noses in as they do with most everything, but it is the states that are actually responsible.

[Moving Sale]

Unions = mediocrity


Pay me not based on my merits, instead pay me based on years of service. Unless someone is lazy why would you put up with that?


I have had multiple opportunities to join a union and passed each time. I also do what I can to hire non Union folks and to buy non Union American made when possible.

And you vote for people who are for disbanding police, fire and other civil service unions. Oh and you don't watch most pro team sports. And what about Boeing jets? Are they union made?

[Moving Sale]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the interstate highway system the responsibility of the U.S. Government?

You really have no idea what Federalism is do you? Props on getting rolled be Holic and his 47 IQ.

[Diego in Seattle]

Unions = mediocrity


Pay me not based on my merits, instead pay me based on years of service. Unless someone is lazy why would you put up with that?

Take two widget makers. Widget maker A has been on the job for 22 years and produces 100 widgets per hour. His salary is $45,000.

Widget maker B has been on the job for 8 months and produces 125 widgets per hour. His salary is $30,000.

What incentive does B have to work harder? What are his union dues doing to help him?


I have had multiple opportunities to join a union and passed each time. I also do what I can to hire non Union folks and to buy non Union American made when possible.

Take two widget makers. Widget maker A has been on the job for 22 years, is buddy-buddy with the owner/managers, and produces 100 widgets per hour. His salary is $45,000.

Widget maker B has been on the job for 8 months, doesn't brown-nose, and produces 125 widgets per hour. His salary is $30,000.

You really think that a worker only gets the shaft in union environments?

[Diego in Seattle]

Unions are one of the biggest reasons manufacturing jobs left this country over the last two decades

Sure. And I bet you believe that stores wouldn't go to automated checkout if it weren't for unions, either.

Idiot.

[Dinsdale]

Seems most of you, in your zeal to point out the multiple levels on which Diego kicked his own backside, missed the most obvious one...

So, how'd that heavily unionized and heavily taxed thing work out for Washington?

Does the Skagit River Bridge ring any bells?

[BSmack]

Or a dumbfuck truck driver...

Winner winner. Clearance was signed for for 14' 1". Anything over 14' needs a permit which the driver had, but his load was 14' 7" high. The insurance company for the motorist that was killed will likely put the trucking company out of business.

I doubt they'll put the company out of business unless they can find a smoking gun that shows it was company policy to ram their loads into bridges. The truck was insured for damage, injury and death. The insurance company will negotiate a settlement and life will go on.

[Left Seater]

Unions = mediocrity


Pay me not based on my merits, instead pay me based on years of service. Unless someone is lazy why would you put up with that?


I have had multiple opportunities to join a union and passed each time. I also do what I can to hire non Union folks and to buy non Union American made when possible.

And you vote for people who are for disbanding police, fire and other civil service unions. Oh and you don't watch most pro team sports. And what about Boeing jets? Are they union made?

Yes I do vote for those who want to disband government employee unions.

I don't watch much pro sports other than hockey, and look what unions have done to that sport. Most younger players don't like the union anyway and two teams struggled to find player reps last season.

I don't have much of a choice when it comes to planes but at least Boeing fought the unions into huge concessions.

[BSmack]

After seeing video of the crash, it looks like the truck's refer unit was what hit the beam. It makes me wonder if that beam was properly secured. Also, there is some doubt as to if the proper signage was up. This one might fall on the taxpayers of Texas.

[smackaholic]

Seems most of you, in your zeal to point out the multiple levels on which Diego kicked his own backside, missed the most obvious one...

So, how'd that heavily unionized and heavily taxed thing work out for Washington?

Does the Skagit River Bridge ring any bells?

Why do they cut that video when it gets good? Does the second small truck make it?

[Smackie Chan]

Does the second small truck make it?

I'm guessing it didn't go all Evel Knievel.

[Felix]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the interstate highway system the responsibility of the U.S. Government?

no you're right, but each state is responsible for that part of an interstate that goes through their state.....the Texas DOT oversees the process with Federal Funding contributing......probably about 70%

You really have no idea what Federalism is do you? Props on getting rolled be Holic and his 47 IQ.

and you have no idea what the Federal Highway Administration is or what it is they do.....

[Moving Sale]

Yes I do vote for those who want to disband government employee unions.

I find this very hard to believe. Can you name one?

[Moving Sale]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the interstate highway system the responsibility of the U.S. Government?

no you're right, but each state is responsible for that part of an interstate that goes through their state.....the Texas DOT oversees the process with Federal Funding contributing......probably about 70%

That's what Federalism is you mindless keyboard fucker.

and you have no idea what the Federal Highway Administration is or what it is they do.....

The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) provides stewardship over the construction, maintenance and preservation of the Nation’s highways, bridges and tunnels. FHWA also conducts research and provides technical assistance to state and local agencies in an effort to improve safety, mobility, and livability, and to encourage innovation.
It's called Federalism, which is what I said it was. Do you have a point that's salient?

[Left Seater]

Yes I do vote for those who want to disband government employee unions.

I find this very hard to believe. Can you name one?

I voted for this state rep multiple times when I lived in Houston. She has long stated that government employees should not be unionized. She has recently introduced legislation that would prevent the state of Texas or any subset from collecting union dues via payroll deduction.

In other words the state will not at it's expense collect union dues and send them to the union. If an employee wants to be a member in good standing they will have to pay the union dues on their own and the union will have to absorb the costs of billing, collecting and tracking said dues.

Unions counter that this is just a ploy to reduce union membership and will increase the unions costs significantly which will reduce their ability to spend and influence.

One professor who studies unions and economics suggests this will reduce union membership by 25%-30% almost as soon as it goes into effect and will reduce overall union expenditures by 35%. (He provides no stats that I can find.)


http://www.breitbart.com/texas/2015/03/ ... or-unions/

[Moving Sale]

So a truer statement would be that you have voted for one person who want to get rid of public unions.

[Screw_Michigan]

look what unions have done to that sport

Like what?

[Mikey]

No income taxes...quite as friendly in other areas.


http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/24/us/in ... .html?_r=0

The Joys of No Income Tax, the Agonies of Other Kinds

When Gov. Bobby Jindal of Louisiana wanted to sell his plan to replace his state’s income tax with a higher sales tax, he pointed to Texas as both the problem and the solution.

Too many Louisiana residents are moving to Texas, because that is where the jobs are, he said. The jobs are there, he argued, because Texas does taxes right.

“You go to Dallas, you go to Houston, and there are entire neighborhoods that are filled with our neighbors from Louisiana,” Mr. Jindal said last month during a speech to the St. Tammany West Chamber of Commerce.

Mr. Jindal, who has since acknowledged that opposition to his proposal remains insurmountable, is among a growing group of Republicans across the country who are working to repeal their states’ income tax, using Texas’ economic success to make their case.

Inside Texas, however, the state’s tax system is not universally beloved. Although few are calling for Texas to impose its own income tax, the way the state employs property, sales and business taxes to finance services, particularly education, draws criticism and debate across the political spectrum.

“There’s no question that it’s a positive to not have a personal income tax,” said Dale Craymer, president of the business-backed Texas Taxpayers and Research Association. “But that has to be balanced out in some manner, and the way Texas has balanced it out is with lower-than-average spending, higher-than-average property taxes and higher-than-average sales taxes.”

High-ranking officials in Georgia, North Carolina and Ohio have also cited Texas in recent months as a model for tax reform.

In his January State of the State speech, Gov. Sam Brownback of Kansas underscored his plan to phase out that state’s income tax by proclaiming: “Look out, Texas. Here comes Kansas.”

The focus on Texas is largely because of the state’s outsize economic performance throughout the recent recession. During his failed presidential campaign, Gov. Rick Perry touted Texas’ low taxes, and its lack of an income tax in particular, as central to what has become known as the “Texas miracle.”

Mr. Perry has maintained that focus over the past year. On April 15, the federal income tax filing deadline, he bragged to reporters that an estimated 1,000 residents were moving to Texas every day. His message to them: “You can stop trying to figure out how to pay the state income tax, because we don’t have one.”

Most states finance local and state government largely through some mixture of sales taxes, property taxes and income taxes. Texas is one of nine states that do not levy an individual income tax.

The Tax Foundation, a conservative-leaning research group, ranks Texas ninth-best on its State Business Tax Climate Index, largely because of the state’s lack of an income tax. On three of the foundation’s other major rankings — property taxes, sales taxes and corporate taxes — Texas ranks in the bottom 20 states.

Texas does not have a statewide property tax, but local property taxes remain a crucial complaint among businesses and homeowners.

“That’s the least attractive thing we have in our tax code,” said Representative Harvey Hilderbran, a Kerrville Republican who is chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee. This session, he has taken a lead role in efforts to renew a state program that allows school districts to offer property-tax breaks to companies as an economic incentive tool. The program has drawn criticism from conservative and liberal groups that argue that it is too expensive and allows districts to pick winners and losers in the marketplace.

But a bill extending the program another decade at a cost of $4.4 billion passed the House nearly unanimously this month amid fears that Texas communities would lose out on jobs to, among others, Louisiana, where property taxes are lower and incentives are also available.

“Absent the ability to offer some sort of short-term break on property taxes, we couldn’t compete for most major industrial investments,” Mr. Craymer of the Texas Taxpayers and Research Association said. “Our high property taxes would just scare folks off.”

In 2006, Texas lawmakers approved a tax reform package that lowered property taxes and created a new business franchise tax to help pay for it. The new tax has never generated as much revenue as projected and has been derided by businesses. This session, more than 90 bills were filed aimed at reforming the tax, including 9 proposing to repeal it entirely.

“It’s been a pretty onerous tax on small and medium-sized businesses,” said Talmadge Heflin, the director of the Center for Fiscal Policy at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, a conservative research and outreach organization. “I think there will be a continued effort to do away with it.”

Paradoxically, a chief complaint about the tax is that it does not operate more like an income tax. Businesses pay the franchise tax on gross receipts, leading to some having to pay it even in years when they make little or no profit.

“When a small business is unprofitable and must pay the tax, they use their personal savings, mortgage their home or borrow money from their family to meet their obligation,” said Will Newton, executive director of the Texas chapter of the National Federation of Independent Business.

While businesses say the Texas tax system leaves much to be desired, cities and school districts argue that the state falls short on the financing end, particularly considering its surging population growth. Local debt has shot up over the past decade, in large part to cover the costs for new schools and public maintenance projects.

“The state is doing less building of highways and roads and pushing that funding down to cities and counties,” said Bennett Sandlin, executive director of the Texas Municipal League, which lobbies for local governments. (The Texas Municipal League is a corporate sponsor of The Texas Tribune.) Last year, lawsuits representing more than 500 school districts were filed against the state arguing that it does not properly finance public education. A district court judge found the state’s school system unconstitutional, a ruling that the state is expected to appeal. Many lawmakers expect Mr. Perry to call a special session next year on school finance.

Groups like the liberal Center for Public Policy Priorities say the varied complaints with the current tax system in Texas illustrate why a state income tax makes sense. The group’s senior fiscal analyst, Dick Lavine, said an income tax would give the state’s revenue stream a more balanced approach.

“The great strength of the income tax is that it can be made proportional to a taxpayer’s ability to pay,” Mr. Lavine said. “In the Texas tax system, those with the lowest income pay the highest proportion of their income in taxes.”

Conservatives counter that an income tax would stifle the state’s economic success, the very success that has elicited envy from officials around the country. This month, Republicans in the North Carolina Senate released a tax-cut proposal they described as the first step in phasing out that state’s personal and corporate income taxes. Phil Berger, president pro tem of the Senate, said strong economic growth in states like Texas helped inspire the initiative.

“I wouldn’t say we’re in a position to replicate everything in Texas,” Mr. Berger said. “We don’t have much tumbleweed here.”

[Goober McTuber]

look what unions have done to that sport

Like what?

I think that by "unions" he meant Gary Bettman.

[Left Seater]

So a truer statement would be that you have voted for one person who want to get rid of public unions.

Wrong.

Do you remember what you typed earlier in this thread? Here is a refresher.

I find this very hard to believe. Can you name one?

So I named one.

But I have in fact voted for others who are doing things to help the cause of eliminating public employee unions or at least working towards that. In Nov I voted for Joe Strauss as my State Rep. He was elected and also chosen by the other Reps to be Speaker of the House. In this role he has assigned the previously mentioned bill (House version) to a favorable committee and had the bill read on the floor which is a required step towards passage.

[Dinsdale]

Public employee unions = dens of thieves.

If you don't trust your fellow citizens to pay a fair wage and ensure safe working conditions, rest assured your fellow citizens don't want you working for them.

I'm all for my public ("my" because I pay them) employees being paid fairly, as is just about everyone I've ever encountered. Not sure why they have to conspire against us.

[BSmack]

Even Franklin D. Roosevelt was opposed to public employee unions.

http://www.fdrlibrary.marist.edu/aboutf ... ssconf.pdf

He was also opposed to doing anything about civil rights. Different times.

[mvscal]

Even Franklin D. Roosevelt was opposed to public employee unions.

http://www.fdrlibrary.marist.edu/aboutf ... ssconf.pdf

He was also opposed to doing anything about civil rights. Different times.

Irrelevant. It was a bad idea then and it is a bad idea now.

[Left Seater]

After seeing video of the crash, it looks like the truck's refer unit was what hit the beam. It makes me wonder if that beam was properly secured. Also, there is some doubt as to if the proper signage was up. This one might fall on the taxpayers of Texas.

You wondered if the beam was properly secured? Many of the precast prestressed beams have no bolts or other fasteners. They are held in place by gravity and the weight of the road deck above them. In this case the road deck had not been built yet.


As for the doubt about signage, there isn't any doubt. There were three signs over the previous mile and a half that all stated the bridge height was 13' 6". Never mind the actual bridge height was 6.5" higher. The load was 14' 7", per the DPS which would have issued the permit.

[Moving Sale]

LS, I was moving goalposts.

How is it that Boeing made great planes while having union workers?

[Left Seater]

LS, I was moving goalposts.

How is it that Boeing made great planes while having union workers?

Notice I said I don't have much of a choice when it comes to planes. Boeing has moved some production to SC where the workers were not unionized, however, that may soon change.

All planes have issues regardless of where they were built. US designed planes tend to have a higher thrust to weight ratio which helps when the chips are down.

[Diego in Seattle]

All planes have issues regardless of where they were built.

Minimize, much?

The plane was three years late due to Boeing's attempt to break the union. And Everett is still having to rework a lot of the crap that comes from BSC.

"All that aside Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play?"

[Left Seater]

Oh we all know what is going on with the rework. The union workers in Everett are doing everything they can to undermine anything and everything coming out of SC. Amazingly if the workers in SC choose to join a union everything will suddenly be fine and you will defend them.

This is no different than airline pilots that suddenly refuse to fly with any open items on the jet when they want something from the airline. Then as soon as they get what they want they suddenly start flying with open items they wouldn't the day before.