It is time for the third installment of your candidate report cards.
Immigration – see previous post (value 1)
Education – see previous post (value 3)
Taxes – all the corruption is our government has been paid for on the backs of homeowners and small businesses. (value 4)
Healthcare – we have more non-insured people than almost every other state. The fact that without insurance our choices are often poverty or death is a major problem. (value 2)
Environment – the mother of all issues. A healthier environment will help education and healthcare and without it, nothing else matters. (value 5)
Its time for Taxes…
Read on for an explanation of the grades
Perry on Taxes – one of his worst grades. He touts the $2,000 real estate tax cut that nobody ever got, calling it the largest tax cut in state history. The problem is that it was a TAX SWAP. Not only was the cut almost non-existant to everyone except for the very wealthy, he created the largest tax INCREASE in state history on the backs of small business and smokers.
Bell on Taxes – he gets a C because like many other issues, he simply does not address it. For Bell to ignore such a big issue makes me think he doesn’t intend to offer any tax relief.
Friedman on Taxes – he is our winner on the tax issue. Not only does he propose a repeal of the new Perry business taxes, but a cap on state spending and a cap on property tax increases at 3%, which is far below the current 10%.
Strayhorn on Taxes – she does want to repeal the business tax which is a positive, but other than that Strayhorn does not go into much detail about changes.
Werner on Taxes – the bravest of all positions on the issue, Werner proposes no property taxes and instead replace them with a state sales tax. While I really like the idea of this tax system, his notions of privatizing many of the state departments is a bit scary.
Shh…Galactica’s on