Guest Column: My Texas Legislature in a Box
The legislative deadlock over the budget brings into sharp definition the box in which the Legislature is now confined. The House and Senate budget bills both reduce state spending by billions, with the Senate version currently about $4 billion higher in state spending than the House version. The comparatively generous Senate versions would mean something like an $11 billion cut from the current baseline of $187.5 billion. The bulk of the cuts in both versions will come in social services and moneys that pass through to local entities, especially school districts. Legislators express regret and worry over these facts ...
Comments (8)
Marcus Cunningham via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Here's the thing: the "Texas Style" endorsed by the GOP clearly isn't working. If we were prosperous we wouldn't be trying to gut education. We wouldn't be budgeting as if thousands of people hadn't moved or been born in TX in the last two years. I don't buy their snake oil, and no one with any sense should.
Brett Baldwin
It would be very easy to balance the Budget without raising taxes if the Texas Legislature would stop spending over $8 BILLION dollars per year on illegal aliens and their children.
All the Texas Legislature has to do is pass a new Business License bill that requires every business in Texas to pay an annual Fee of $10,000 per employee. If the business certifies/documents that they have used E-Verify to prove that all of their employees are legal to work in the US, then the business gets a rebate/credit of $10,000 per employee for each legal employee.
There are over 1 million illegal aliens working in Texas each year. If just 50% of Businesses choose to NOT us E-Verify it would raise over $5 Billion dollars every year.
Budget problem solved. Any solution that ignores the illegal alien problem is trivial.
john penland
@Brett,
While I don't support illegal immigration, your way would actually create a second recession-one that would hit states like Texas the hardest. In your haste to follow the talking heads of the GOP down the path of ignorance, your overlooking one thing: That is that everybody, whether here legally or not pays taxes, both property and sales taxes, because they pay rent to landlords that pay property taxes-in fact they pay higher taxes due to it not being their residence, they pay sales taxes that support our local communities, they pay income taxes and social security taxes when they use a social security number to gain employment. In fact, the only way that they get out of it is open to legal residents and illegals. That is getting paid cash, under the table. Its illegal, but I'm sure that many ignore that.
At a time when the muppets in Austin are cutting taxes for yacht owners, cutting funding for social services, and cutting education, it makes no sense whatsoever to increase the cost for employers and the state by introducing a costly system.
Your plan seems like a welfare check to the largest employers, those that already recieve more than their share, and pay so little in taxes, but thats what the GOP stands for now, robbing the poor blind to give to the rich, right?
Brett Baldwin
@john
You did not even read my comments before you commented on them.
How would my proposal cause a second recession? Your comments are ridiculous.
My proposal would create an economic boom with unemployment dropping to 4% and over a million people would get jobs and leave unemployment and be able to support their families with a job.
My proposal does NOT require any business to use E-Verify for any employee, it is voluntary.
My proposal does create a new Business License FEE of $10,000 for every employee.
Businesses that voluntarily use E-Verify would get a credit or rebate of $10,000 for every employee.
There are over 2 million unemployed Texans and the highest unemployment rates are among blacks and the poor. If E-Verify caused 1 million illegal aliens to leave Texas for California, this would lower the unemployment rate from 8% to 4% in Texas and save Texas over $8 BILLION dollars so that we would NOT have to cut any State spending on Education unlike what happened in the article above.
john, you apparently are racist because my proposal would help primarily blacks and the poor in Texas get jobs that are currently held by illegal aliens (some of these illegals are from India and China).
john penland
Everify would drop unemployment to 4%? We wouldn't lose money from all of the taxes that illegals pay(they pay more than Exxon, BoA, and a lot of other corporations put together..).
Ok, requiring might be too strong a word. Blackmailing, bribery, or strongarming might be a more correct way to phrase your plan.
If you require everybody to pay up front 10k per employee, then give them a refund for everybody that the certify is a legal resident via E-Verify. That will still create a large barrier towards hiring that isn't there now. I won't even go into the odds that they would ever see that money again with the current Governor that loves stashing money in the Rainy Day fund, then not using it when its flooding..
I did read your comments, your plan would discourage hiring, getting rid of the illegal immigrants working would damage the states economy since apparently the businesses can't find people to work for what they are willing to pay for some jobs, except for illegals(whether that speaks to the job or the pay rate isn't always clear).
I won't even dignify your racism charge with an answer, since its baseless and absurd.
The recession would be caused when tax dollars decrease even more when you get rid of the illegal immigrants, who as everybody knows pay more tax dollars than corporations making billions of dollars each year.
The illegal immigration problem is best solved the way it has been in the past. Amnesty. Another step that would help out is reducing the miles of red tape that people have to go through to immigrate, that would also save money. Enforcing current immigration laws is fiscally infeasible if we can't afford to fund education, have to cut programs that bring in federal dollars to the state(we get more in tax dollars than we pay in, here in texas), and can't afford to help the elderly(but can afford to give tax breaks to the wealthy, that don't create jobs).
Brett Baldwin
@john,
You obviously didn't take economics in college. Illegal aliens are costing the Texas Taxpayers over $8 Billion dollars per year in welfare, free health care, subsidized housing, and free education for their children (who cost more because of extra "English as a Second Language" teachers).
Just by removing over 1 million illegal aliens and their children from the State of Texas by encouraging them to move to California which loves illegal aliens, we save over $8 Billion dollars. This $8 Billion dollars could then be spent on the Schools in Texas that had a $4 Billion dollars shortfall.
Finally, if 2 million Texans are unemployed and that equals 8% unemployment, then if 1 million illegal aliens workers left the State, then that would free up 1 million jobs would go to the unemployed Texans reducing the number of unemployed Texans down to 1 millon, thereby cutting the unemployment rate from 8% to 4%. This would also cutting Billions from the State of Texas unemployment and welfare spending helping to reduce the Budget Deficit in Texas without raising taxes on legal citizens.
Again, unless you are a racist and hate blacks who are suffering under 20% unemployment, I can't see why you think illegal aliens should have jobs illegally that blacks would love to have.
john penland
Brett,
Your proposal is essentially a 10 thousand dollar tax that will hit small businesses extremely hard. It will lead to mass unemployment, due to the fact that very few businesses can afford to pay 10,000 per employee, even if they would get it back. That essentially raises the cost of hiring somebody to astronomical levels. Not to mention the costs associated with E-Verify(training people, keeping somebody around to be able to use the system, litigation costs if there is a problem souce: http://www.politifact.com/florida/statements/2011/may/03/jd-alexander/sen-jd-alexander-questions-e-verify-costs/ )
You make several blanket assumptions in your comments. 1. That the jobs currently being held by illegal immigrants are jobs that the people are qualified to take over. 2. That they would take those jobs. This could be due to low pay(people that hire illegal immigrants to work generally aren't interested in paying living wages or benefits). 3. That all students in ESL classes are children of illegal immigrants.
4. That illegal immigrants benefit from welfare(In case you weren't aware, you have to be a U.S. citizen to qualify-or have documentation that you are legally in the U.S. (source: http://www.hhsc.state.tx.us/help/5017_1010-eng.pdf )
Yes, our public schools have to educate all children, but that is actually a good thing. Failing to adequately educate our children will only come back to bite us in the end-a fact that sadly this governor and legislature do their best to ignore, choosing instead to give tax breaks to yacht owners.
A better solution would be to simply do what we did during the great depression, and other times of economic hardship. Invest in public work's projects. We have crumbling infrastructure that won't last another 30 years at best. Instead of the draconian cuts that this legislature has undertaken, that cut jobs, and hit the people that can least afford any more hardship, we could create jobs, by investing in our future. We have roads and bridges that need to be repaired, new ones built, we could build new high speed rail to ease the congestion, there is so much that could be done that would improve the economy and our future, but our congressional representatives and legislators are too blinded by people that are espousing views that failed a long time ago, and have been renounced by their originators long since.
Its been nice debating things with you, but I've got to move on, new stories to troll ;)
Brett Baldwin
@john,
My proposal does NOT cost $10,000. It costs $0 upfront if the employer voluntarily uses E-Verify.
Employers are already required to fill out I-9 forms which is the exact same data required for E-Verify.
E-Verify is easy to use and only takes minutes to complete and get an validation that the employee is legal. If employers use E-Verify they are given a free pass by the Federal Government from any lawsuits should it turn out that somehow the employee was illegal. E-Verify is now over 99.5% accurate.
The only businesses that do not want to use E-Verify are greedy businesses that want to exploit cheap labor and not pay minimum wages. Texas does not want those kind of business here.
AGAIN, there are over 2 million unemployed Texans and the highest unemployment rates are among blacks and the poor. If E-Verify caused 1 million illegal aliens to leave Texas for California, this would lower the unemployment rate from 8% to 4% in Texas and save Texas over $8 BILLION dollars so that we would NOT have to cut any State spending on Education unlike what happened in the article above.
The Federal Government is over $70 TRILLION dollars in debt and unfunded liabilities and the State of Texas has a $20 Billion dollar shortfall over the next two years, and your idea is to go into MORE DEBT to fund more debt funded construction projects and high speed rail built by ILLEGAL ALIENS because you refuse to require E-Verify?
Are you crazy? Money does not grow on trees kiddo.