Recent polling shows overwhelming support among Texas voters to force an election on future property tax hikes at the local level, reinforcing current property tax reform introduced by the Republican-led legislature in Austin.
Seventy-two percent say they “support voter approval before property taxes increase more than a set amount,” according to the latest University of Texas/Texas Tribune Poll. That includes 84 percent of Republicans and 62 percent of Democrats.
“There's a lot of good insight of what we're seeing from this poll that is being reflected in what the Legislature and our state leaders are doing. So I'm optimistic that we can continue to be the strong state we've been over a long period of time here in Texas,” says Dr. Vance Ginn, director of the Center for Economic Prosperity at the Texas Public Policy Foundation.
Meanwhile, 46 percent of voters put “low teacher pay” among their top three concerns for K-12 public education, followed by “not enough funding for the public school system as a whole,” and “unequaled resources among schools and school districts.”
When asked how to boost public education money, 60 percent said to legalize and tax marijuana while another 57 percent suggested raising the state's current alcohol tax. Seven-out-of-ten respondents were against raising the gas tax, sales tax or create a state income tax.
Ginn says the numbers reflect Texans' attitude toward personal liberties and smaller government.
“Making sure that taxes remain low, that we should never have a personal income tax in the state of Texas, and ultimately have limited government spending along the way so people can prosper the most,” he says.