AUSTIN – The Texas Public Policy Foundation’s Economist Dr. Vance Ginn testified today before the Texas Senate Transportation Committee on the interim charge recommending ways to compress or otherwise reduce the number of required inspections. Dr. Ginn also today released a new paper,Costs of Texas’ Passenger Vehicle Safety Inspection, examining the cost and effectiveness of the inspections.


“While the benefits are minimal, the costs are significant; the inspections have taken close to $2.4 billion out of the pockets of consumers over ten years,” said Dr. Ginn. “By eliminating the safety inspection burden, Texans will be given the opportunity to choose how best to spend their money to meet their needs and stimulate economic activity.

 
To read the paper, please visit: http://txpo.li/cost-of-texas-passenger-vehicle-safety-inspection


Vance Ginn, Ph.D. is an Economist in the Center for Fiscal Policy at the Texas Public Policy Foundation. 
​

The Texas Public Policy Foundation is a non-profit, free-market research institute based in Austin, Texas.

By: Vance Ginn and Kiara Pillay 


Texas’ relatively low tax burden has helped create an economic environment that brings people worldwide and from other states here for the opportunity to prosper. This is evident by the state’s 4.7 percent unemployment rate that has now been at or below the U.S. average for 108 consecutive months. There is ample evidence that the Texas model works and must be advanced by passing conservative budgets and eliminating the costly business margin tax.


As an indication of Texas’ competitive standing with other states, the Tax Foundation’s recently released State-Local Tax Burden Rankings FY 2012 report compares this burden for all 50 states. To calculate state-local tax burdens, the authors gather Census Bureau data for state and local governments in 26 categories and then subdivide these into groups and account for tax exporting. Tax exporting is “the shifting of tax burdens from state residents to nonresidents” such as taxing restaurant meals and hotels. After accounting for tax exporting, the authors compute the total state and local tax burden as a share of total state income.


While these measures of a state’s tax burden have limitations, they provide valuable information about the aggregate level of state-local tax burden in a state. The U.S. average burden as a share of state income is 9.9 percent. Texas’ burden is 7.6 percent, which ranks 46th with 1st being the highest burden and 50th being the lowest, indicating the Lone Star State has the fifth lowest state-local tax burden. However, this was a decline from 47th lowest for FY 2011. Figure 1 provides a comprehensive map comparing the tax burdens for all states in FY 2012.

Figure 1: Texas Ranks as the 46th Lowest State-Local Tax Burden








​Source: Tax Foundation


Many of the least burdensome states, including Alaska (50th), Wyoming (48th), Nevada (43rd), and Texas (46th), unsurprisingly do not have an income tax and instead rely on other less burdensome forms of taxation to generate government revenue. Comparatively, California has similar resources and population sizes and demographics as Texas but vastly different governing philosophies that shows up in this report as California’s state-local tax burden ranks 6th worst.


Bottom line: The Texas model of low taxes and no personal income tax works well to keep a low overall burden on Texans, but as another Tax Foundation report recently noted the state ranks 41st worst for the corporate income tax from the burdensome business margin tax that must be eliminated. To do that, the principles of limited government and free market principles must be enhanced for a more prosperous future.

http://www.texaspolicy.com/blog/detail/texas-has-46th-lowest-state-local-tax-burden

AUSTIN – Today, the Texas Workforce Commission released Texas labor market data for 2015. The Texas Public Policy Foundation’s Economist Dr. Vance Ginn issued the following statement:


“Today’s jobs report exemplifies the diversity of the Texas economy that benefits from a limited government philosophy. Texas created 24,900 net nonfarm jobs last month for a streak of more jobs added in all but two of the last 63 months. Despite the last year’s economic headwinds such as the steep drop in oil prices that contributed to 33,600 job losses in the mining industry that is dominated by oil and gas jobs, the private services providing sector added 209,900 jobs for a total gain statewide of 166,900 jobs. This diversity of job creation contributed to the state’s 4.7 percent unemployment rate that has now been at or below the national average for 108 straight months.    

 
Texas faces headwinds from the worst declines in oil prices and the stock market to start a year along with fewer exports from a slowing global economy. But the combination of passing a conservative budget, historic tax relief, and leaving billions of dollars on the table last session was the right recipe that must be continued for more opportunities to prosper for Texans in 2016 and beyond.”  


Vance Ginn, Ph.D. is an Economist in the Center for Fiscal Policy at the Texas Public Policy Foundation. 


The Texas Public Policy Foundation is a non-profit, free-market research institute based in Austin, Texas.
​

Find us on Facebook
Follow us on Twitter