April 25, 2019      6:31 PM
SB: Bettencourt's opposition to a sales tax increase in 2019 sounds much like Bonnen in 2015, when he proposed cutting the same tax
In ‘15, the man who would be Speaker laid out conservative principles and the economics of why sales taxes should be slashed
When
talking tax policy, it’s important to remember that revenue neutral and tax
neutral are not the same.
In
other words, policymakers can move the dials on two different revenue streams
up or down in order to make the books balance in the state budget (that’s revenue
neutral) while changing the tax burden for Texans (that’s not tax neutral).
That
fact seems to be at least part of what’s grating on Senate Property Tax Committee
Chairman Paul Bettencourt as he and
Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick go through one
of the most significant policy splits in recent Texas political history.
By Scott Braddock
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