Fresh fodder?
'Income tax' is a loaded label for business levy: Perry opponents get fired up after accounting board calls it just that (Peggy Fikac, Houston Chronicle)
A board that sets national accounting standards stirred up the Texas governor's race by saying the state's new business tax is an income tax for reporting purposes.
The decision by the Financial Accounting Standards Board embraced a label rejected by backers, including Republican Gov. Rick Perry, who championed the expanded business tax to lower local school property taxes.
The designation gives fresh fodder to Perry challengers independent Carole Keeton Strayhorn, the state comptroller; independent Kinky Friedman; and Democrat Chris Bell.
Strayhorn spokesman Mark Sanders said the ruling makes Perry the first governor in Texas history to sign into law an income tax.
Bell spokesman Jason Stanford said Perry managed "to pass not only the biggest tax increase in state history but also apparently a state income tax with the singular achievement of making sure that not one red cent will go to our public schools."
It doesn't really give "fresh fodder" to Bell, who cannot credibly get to Perry's right on fiscal issues. It doesn't give "fresh fodder" to Friedman, who is not serious period. It does probably give some fodder to Strayhorn, but she's also going to have trouble getting to the right of Perry (credibly), even after the Perry/Sharp tax plan.
In a discussion with some Chron folks this week, we reached the conclusion that for a pretty unexceptional leader, Gov. Perry has great political fortunes. The way this race is shaking down only seems to drive that conclusion home.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/10/06 21:55 | Texas | Technorati
Previous Entry | Home | Next Entry
TrackBack
There are currently no trackbacks for this item.
Incoming trackback pings have been disabled because of abusive spammers. Technorati is now used to track cross-blog conversation.
Comments
It's not going to matter much politically I don't think, especially considering none of the three pretenders probably have much of a chance to beat Perry. Where it could hurt Perry is if there is a lawsuit filed that makes it to a judge. Of course, now that taxpayers have been found as not having any legal standing, even that is looking more and more unlikely.
Posted by Sedosi @ 22:11 on 08/10/06
Kevin,
Your commentary on your current (soon to be reelected, sigh) Gov. Perry is a similar comment on what will happen nationally: For a party that can never seem to do right by anyone, the GOP has quite a bit of staying power. And that staying power will show when the GOP keeps their lead in the Senate, House, and Governorships.
And voter turnout will be in the high 20s.
Posted by Brad S @ 12:45 on 08/11/06
Add Comments
While it is not required, creating an account for commenting provides a number of benefits (such as comment editing and bypassing the captcha challenge). You may log in to your account here.
No flames or impolite behavior. Any questions, see the site policies. Older posts are moderated (because of spammers), so if your post does not appear immediately, that could be why.
HTML will be stripped. URLs will be transformed into hyperlinks.
[b]text[/b] will produce bold text. [i]text[/i] will produce italicized text.
Comments for this post must be approved before being published. Thank you!
BLOG
» Create Account
» Log In
DISCLAIMER
Content and design copyright © 1997-2008, Kevin Whited.
Posts represent the views of Kevin Whited (and occasional guest bloggers) only, and do not necessarily reflect the views of employers, family, friends, or significant others.