Shifting the Burden: Legislature should control increase in sales tax

DallasNews.com | News for Dallas, Texas | Opinion: Editorials: "From the earliest days of the session, Texas legislators have missed the best way to fund schools, a funding decision that is not only a big chunk of the state's budget but also lawmakers' biggest headache. In the face of many lesser plans, this editorial page has maintained support for that 'best way' – a universal business tax set at 4 percent annually and a dollar increase in the cigarette tax, which would have raised the $8 billion in new money that schools need.

Instead, legislators are spending the last week of the session haggling over a plan to raise $3 billion for the next two years. And the worst of it is that the last-minute dickering involves whether to accept the House proposal to raise sales taxes by 1 cent, a plan that pounds poor and middle-income Texans."