Guerra: A 1% State Income Tax for Higher Ed.

Carlos Guerra, as always, provides us a thought-provoking piece on what Texas history is truly based on: Taking risks. It’s about time Texas got off it’s high-horse and begin to take risks–investing in all Texans; especially in our education system with which all success in Texas is based upon.

Carlos Guerra – San Antonio Express-News, 1/29/2009
OK, Texas, here is our chance.

I know, these are not prosperous times. But for decades, California has been bruising Texas in virtually all things economic. Yes, we’ve always had bigger ranches and more oil and gas wells, and the few of us who owned them have done well.

But average Texans have not. Over the decades, Californians have recorded higher average household earnings, much higher home values, higher employment rates and, overall, much greater prosperity than Texans.

All the Texas braggadocio aside, we’re talking long-term embarrassment. It isn’t without reason that Texas has been a national joke for decades.

California and Texas are two of the nation’s three most prosperous states, where wealth is most concentrated. But in terms of the numbers of residents enjoying that wealth, Californians have had better everything than us.

Who are we kidding? For starters, they are a lot skinnier than Texans. A higher percentage of their kids have been graduating from high school, and many more of them have been going to better universities — in large part because California has nine to 11 top-end public universities, compared with two in Texas, and there is no dispute about our paltry count — and a higher percentage of California students have gone on to seek higher education.

Is it any wonder that California has attracted more major corporations to locate in that state, or that its residents earn more, on average, or have better health statistics?

Personally, I am fed up with it all, and we all should be. And we should all want to change things and bring the Lone Star State up to par with, and, wherever possible, surpass the Golden State’s good fortunes.

And now, fellow tejanos, we have our chance. We have the opportunity to overpass the californios, once and for all, and turn our state into a model of modernity.

California, as you may have read, is having economic problems — a fiscal crisis so huge that it rivals the economic problems of some small nations. The Golden State is cutting spending on everything, including their enviable University of California System, which employs more Nobel laureates than any other educational institution.

Texas has one of the nation’s lowest tax burdens. We have no state income tax, and, while we have one of the nation’s highest sales taxes, we have property taxes that are relatively low but also some of the nation’s costliest state licenses and fees.

What I propose is not a short-term catch-up solution.

In fact, what I propose will take an entire generation to bear fruit. It will, however, pay off in spades, economically, for our children and grandchildren.

Texas has only two top-end universities, the University of Texas at Austin and Texas A&M University. Our chance to catch up and surpass the Golden State’s good fortunes is upon us, and we must act now.

What I propose is simple: Let’s establish a 1 percent flat state income tax and dedicate it to building the world’s finest university system. A state with the population as large as ours should have more than two excellent universities. We should have 10 or more, and they should be affordable to all who excel in their high schools.

Yes, I know that there will be many who will begrudge that penny out of their hard-earned dollar, but the reality is that we get what we pay for — unless we pay for something we don’t get, and never the other way — and our children and grandchildren will pay far more dearly for what we are too miserly to spend.

Let’s invest in Texas universities.

cguerra@express-news.net