The Baytown Sun (Baytown, Tex.), Vol. 79, No. 122, Ed. 1 Wednesday, March 28, 2001 Page: 4 of 16
sixteen pages : ill. ; page 21 x 11 in. Digitized from 35 mm. microfilm.View a full description of this newspaper.
Extracted Text
The following text was automatically extracted from the image on this page using optical character recognition software:
Tlie Baytown Sun
Wednesday, March 28,2001
Opinion
®Ije Jfeptoton S>un
• Founded 1922
Wanda Gamer Cash, Editor and Publisher WMtney Jones, Managing Editor
Fred Hartman, Publisher Emeritus
1950-1974
Gas tax for Texas is
worth considering
What many Texas lawmak-
ers called their No. 1 pri-
ority this session risks
getting dusted on the roadside
under the sign “insufficient funds.”
If the lack of funds, or lack of con-
sensus on where to find them, kills
the drive for a teachers health insur-
ance package, Texas will pay. It will
see more teachers leave the profes-
sion. It will have to scramble even
more frantically to deal with a
teacher shortage already at 46,000
vacancies.
Shortsighted policies in the last
two sessions have left the state with
$2.2 billion less than it would have
to meet obligations like teacher ben-
efits and highways.
. State Rep. Kip Averitt, R-Wacp,
and co-sponsor Clyde Alexander, D-
Athens, have an answer that would
confront both issues: Their bill, HB
3106, would raise the state motor
fuels tax by 5 cents per gallon.
While most of the attention is
focused on what a nickel could raise
for sorely needed highway construc-
tion, the law requires one-fourth of
the dollars raised by the motor fuels
tax to go to education.
The nickel Averitt and Alexander
propose is an answer to two dire
needs.
Raising the motor fuels tax a nick-
el under HB 3106 would generate'
$487.5 million annually for new
highway construction. Meanwhile,
$162.5 million annually would go
into education. Voters would have to
authorize designating the funds for
the teacher health insurance pro-
gram.
This is an excellent way to break
the rhetorical stalemate about where
to find the money to pay for teacher
health insurance.
Currently, the leading proposal in
Austin would find a considerable
chunk of the money in the perma-
nent school fund. In effect that takes
away from other school needs.
That’s a sum loss for Texas school
children offered under the guise of a
gain for them.
Far better, and more honest, is to
address the need head-on.
One of the appealing things about
a motor-fuels tax paying for high-
ways is that it assesses not just the
in-state users of our highways but
also those passing through, like the
river of trade associated with the
North American Free Trade
Agreement and all those large
trucks chewing up Texas highways.
Averitt promotes the motor fuels
tax as an alternative to selling bonds
to build highways, with long-term
interest, or borrowing against future
federal highway funds.
A motor fuels tax hike means vis-
itors and foreign trucks are helping
the state meet two most compelling
needs: excellent schools and spa-
cious highways.
And it means Texas has found an
honest way to pay for teacher health
insurance.
This editorial was first published
in the Waco Tribune-Herald on
March 25.
FOKMgR PgKlPeNT
CLIHTON IS HOT
IR THE HEWS
©2001 byNEA, Inc.
About Us
Our editorial board
The Baytown Sun’s editorial board meets
weekly at 2 p.m. Wednesday. Individuals are
encouraged to visit the editorial board to dis-
cuss issues affecting the community. To
make an appointment, contact Managing
Editor Whitney Jones, (281) 422-8302.
Members of the editorial board include:
Wanda Gamer Cash,- editor and publisher;
Whitney Jones, managing editor, Eric Bauer,
marketing director; Dee Anne Navarre,
business manager; and Richard Nelson,
assistant managing editor-sports.
Let us hear from you
The Baytown Sun welcomes letters of up to
300 words and guest columns of up to 500
words on any item of public interest. Guest
columns should include a photograph of the
writer. We publish only original material
addressed to The Baytown Sun bearing the
writer’s signature. An address and phone num-
ber not for publication should be included. We
ask that submissions be limited to one per
month. All letters and guest columns subject
to editing.
The Sun reserves the right to refuse to pub-
lish any submission.
Letters endorsing or opposing political can-
didates or issues will not be published within
two days of an election, except in direct rebut-
tal to a letter previously published in The
Baytown Sun. Please send signed letters to:
Wanda Gamer Cash or Whitney Jones, The
Baytpwn Sun, P.O. Box 90, Baytown. TX ‘
77522.
Or, fax them to: (281) 427-1880. Or, e-mail
us at: sunnews@baytownsun.com.
Commentary
Is Bush too passive on tax cuts?
In the end, of course, all that
counts is whether the economy
recovers quickly and strongly. If it
does, President Bush will get the
credit. If not, he’ll get the blame.
Still, in the short run, he’s being
judged on how he responds to the
current bear economy and stock mar-
ket, and the tag being planted on him
is “passive.”
Despite a plunging stock market
and weak economy, until late last
week Bush seemed curiously unwill-
ing to alter his $1.6 trillion tax-cut
plan or even to argue for it on the
basis that it would get the economy
moving again.
Finally, the White House quietly
indicated that it supported — and
may have helped fashion — the pro-
posal made by Senate Budget
Chairman Pete Domenici, R-N.M., to
return $60 billion of this year’s $93
billion surplus to taxpayers.
White House aides issued a state-
ment that Bush “believes we need to
get more money into people’s hands
quicker, and he’s committed to work-
ing with Congress to look for ways '
to make the tax cut retroactive” to
hasten economic recovery.
Nevertheless, the president himself
has not been out in front calling for
action to end what surely will be
dubbed “the Bush recession,” even if.
it more justly should be named after
Federal Reserve Chairman Alan
Greenspan.
Up to now, Bush has allowed
Democrats such as Sens. Thomas
Daschle, S.D., andj^pnt Conrad, ’
. N.D., to steal the march on him, rec-
ommending “smaller, fairer and
faster” tax cuts designed to put
money into the hands of middle-
income people who will spendit.' .
Daschle and Conrad called for
immediate enactment of a cut in the
lowest tax rate from 15 percent to 10
percent — a $60 billion proposal that
would give about $600 to every fami-
ly tins year. ,
Sens. Bob Graham, D-Fla., and
Jon Corzine, D-N.J., recommended a
plan that would apply the 10-percent
rate to an individual’s first $7,500 in
income or a couple’s first $19,000,
which would give couples $950 each
at a cost of $80 billion this year.
Still another Democratic plan,
being crafted by Sen. Max Baucus,
Mont, with lhe assistance of former
Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin,
would cut tax rates by $200 billion
over the next three years.
That’s double the amount offered
during that period under the House-
passed version of Bush’s rate-cut bill,
which will cut taxes by $950 billion
over a decade, but offers most of its
breaks in later years.
The House GOP rate-cut bill pro-
vides a reduction of only $5.6 billion
this year, and Bush’s budget calls for
no cuts until next year, when they
would total just $30.6 billion.
Other Republicans have been argu-
ing for tax cuts.that are bigger and
faster than either the Democrats’ Or
Bush’s, but so far they have no offi-
cial standing. 1
One proposal, costing $45 billion „
this year, would put all of Bush’s pro--
posed rate cuts info effect immediate-
ly. But that would swell the total
long-range cost of his tax package to
several times the $ 1.6 trillion over
five years.
Bush may support a speedup of tax
cuts, but he seems determined to
stick to $1.6 trillion as its 10-year
total cost.
There may be a method to Bush’s
quiet approach. If both Democrats
and Republicans rally around a
speedup, he may get a policy through
consensus without putting his brand
on it and arousing partisan passions.
Conrad’s reaction to Domenici’s
rebate proposal, for instance, was
“We’re glad to see them moving in
our direction.”
Meantime, Republicans on the
House Ways and Means panel passed
an increase in the per-child tax
deduction skewed more toward
lower-income families than Bush’s
— possibly a hint that the GOP sees
a need to make its cuts “fairer.”
Major differences remain, though,
on estate taxes, whose total elimina-
tion (favored by Republicans) would
benefit the wealthy.
One possible compromise is to
stop taxing assets, property, business-
es andfarms on the death of the
owner, but rather when the asset is
sold, and then at a capital-gains rate
of 20 percent instead of the current
top inheritance rate of 55 percent.
Democrats continue to insist that
Bush’s tax cuts will end up totaling
around $2.5 trillion and will consume
z the entire non-Social Security budget
surplus, which they say may shrink if
the economy stays soft. •
Moderates of both parties have rec-
ommended inserting a trigger into
Bush’s tax package so new cuts or
spending couldn’t take effect unless
surplus targets were met. ,
Baucus’ plan takes a different '
' approach: Congress would enact tax
cuts only for three years and revisit -
fiscal policy on the basis of projec- .
tions available then. Republicans are
unlikely to agree to this, though.
How much flexibility will Bu§h
show on the size and distribution of
tax cuts? He isn’t saying. That posi-
tion could be seen as passivity dr the
kind of leadership that lets Congress
play a role in policymaking. 4
Morton Kondracke is executive
editor of Roll Call, the newspaper of
■ Capitol Hill.
Utters
Americans do care about finance reform issues
Senator Mitch McConnell, repub-
lican of Kentucky, claims that we
Americans don’t care about cam-
paign finance reform, and has said
that “it ranks right up there with stat-
ic cling.” Well, Senator McConnell is
plumb out of touch with the country.
His position is understandable
considering how much money he has
raised from special interest groups
for his own campaign financing.
Believe it or not, coming from a
Democrat, Texas’ Senator Kay
Bailey Hutchison voted this past
Wednesday against an amendment
by Senator Hatch that would have
been harmful to the McCain-
Feingold campaign finance reform
Bill. ’
I wish the other Texas Senator
would follow her lead. I am certain
that the vast majority of Americans
are for campaign finance reform, so
that some limits may be placed on
the inordinate amount of influence in
the hands of those with huge sums of
money to give to candidates or their
supporting committees.
It is clearly time to “clean house”
and get rid of the awful influence of
raw power bought by money.
I support the McCain-Feingold
campaign finance reform Bill and
hope that others, both Democrats
and Republicans, will write to our
Senators and urge their support as
well.
Guy C. Jackson III, Chair
Baytown
Officials
City of Baytown
City Hall
2123 Market Street
Baytown, Texas 77520
281-422-8281
City Manager
Monte Mercer
Mayor
Pete Alfaro
281-4208500
City Council
District 1 - Victor Almendarez
281-422-6705
District 2 - Scott She ley
281-422-8008
District 3 - Calvin Mundinger
281-424-9289
Harris County
District Clerk
Charles Bacarisse (R)
713-755-5711
District Attorney
Chuck Rosenthal (R)
713-755-5800
County Judge
Robert Eckels (R)
713-7554000
County Treasurer
Jack Cato (R)
713-7555120
County Attorney
Michael Fleming (R)
713-755-5101
County Clerk
B.F. Kaufman (R)
713-7556405
Tax Assessor-Collector
Paul Bettencourt (R)
713-224-1919
Upcoming Pages
Here’s what’s next.
Search Inside
This issue can be searched. Note: Results may vary based on the legibility of text within the document.
Tools / Downloads
Get a copy of this page or view the extracted text.
Citing and Sharing
Basic information for referencing this web page. We also provide extended guidance on usage rights, references, copying or embedding.
Reference the current page of this Newspaper.
Cash, Wanda Garner. The Baytown Sun (Baytown, Tex.), Vol. 79, No. 122, Ed. 1 Wednesday, March 28, 2001, newspaper, March 28, 2001; Baytown, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1176463/m1/4/: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Sterling Municipal Library.