Special to the Star-Telegram
Taxpayers, it's time to open your wallets. November ballot initiatives total almost $10 billion in state spending. School districts are asking for almost $7 billion more in taxes, and local governments are seeking $9 billion in bonds.
Texans will be asked to consider shouldering considerable additional public debt with numerous measures on Nov. 6. Currently, the state's outstanding general-obligation bond debt is $7.5 billion. If passed, the state initiatives could more than double that.
Local governments -- including the 106 school districts seeking tax increases and the 52 school districts, 12 cities, seven counties and three colleges asking for bond approvals -- will hit taxpayers' pocketbooks even harder.
This building debt is particularly problematic because taxpayers already carry considerable government debt. The interest payments on local government debt in Texas total more than what local governments spend on police and fire protection combined.
Local governments have increased their spending at an unsustainable rate -- in 25 years, an astonishing 158 percent when per-person income increased by only 39 percent. Local government debt has grown at an even more alarming rate, increasing 270 percent in the same period.
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2 comments:
FYI, I sent a Vote No to Prop 12 OP-Ed to the Texas major papers last Thursday.
All the papers including the Snakesman support the added debt of Prop 12, and they have failed to print my guest Op-Ed.
Big business has a ravenous appetite for the public tax and debt troughs.
Only a sucker would vote for what the snakes put in front of us.
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