In the Express-News today, Roddy Stinson, a local columnist who loves to hate the San Antonio city government, points to a study by New York City's Independent Budget Office. The study compares the tax rates in the nation's big cities, and Stinson uses it to suggest that San Antonio's tax rate is abnormally high—the headline on his column is "'Tax Capital of America' race, New York City 1st, Alamo City 4th." He then offers an anecdote about property taxes allegedly scaring off one person from moving here from Florida.
What Stinson doesn't explicitly mention about this study is that in only included nine cities—those with over a million people. 4th out of nine is rather middle-of-the-pack. Ok, it's still above the median (by one slot), but also unsaid is that state taxes make up 49% of San Antonio's share.
I should not pick on Stinson too much here because he does raise some good points later in the column:
As I write this column, a legislative group led by a Texas Democrat, San Antonio State Rep. Mike Villarreal, continues its effort to push/pull through the Legislature a bill that would mandate disclosure of property sale prices and thereby move the state and this community toward fair valuations and equitable taxation.
Villarreal and other champions of the middle class made a similar effort in 2005. But they were thwarted by Republican House Speaker Tom Craddick and his middle-class-mauling, wealthy-class-favoring, big-business-hugging GOP henchmen.
(Greatest political mystery of 2007: Why do grass-roots Republicans continue to be silent as church mice on this issue?)
It is nice to see Stinson finally turning some of his ire on the GOP and the GOP-led state government, who so richly deserve it.
Comments