San Antonio Mayor Asks For Unusual Tax Increase
By Voxxi News
What’s extraordinary is the San Antonio’s mayor, Julián Castro, is asking local voters for a tax increase. What’s more extraordinary is that city business leaders are supporting his request.
One year after Texas lawmakers cut more than $200 million in grants to fund full-day pre-kindergarten programs, Castro is asking his city to fill void and cough up a one-eighth of a cent sales tax increase, a move that is believed to be an unprecedented response by a Texas city — and one that is drawing national attention.
Texas lawmakers faced a blistering revenue shortfall when it last convened a year ago in its biennial legislative session. The net result was a $2.8 billion cut to public schools across Texas.
Some schools, particularly concerned about cuts to full-day pre-kindergarten programs, responded by charging tuition for those who wanted to benefit from such a program — a benefit that many education studies suggest is huge in the development of children.
But not until Castro floated the idea of increasing local sales taxes has a Texas city responded to the cuts in such a manner. If approved by the voters, the tax hike is projected to raise $29 million annually, with an additional state match of $10 million under a program that helps fund half day pre-kindergarten programs for certain disadvantaged students or the children of military personnel.
Already such San Antonio business luminaries as Charles Butt, head of the state’s largest grocery chain, and Joe Robles, chief executive of insurance giant USAA are endorsing the plan.
“Nobody likes a tax — there’s no way to sugarcoat it,” Castro told the Texas Tribune. The tax increase, he said, would hike the average household tax bill by $7.81 a year, a small price to pay “for a profound difference in the lives of thousands of 4-year-olds,” he told the Tribune.
The San Antonio City Council is expected to decide in August whether to put the issue to voters on the November ballot.
This article was first published in Voxxi.
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