and ousted, former state Sen. Don Huffines of Dallas. Among a grab bag of either divisive or just bad ideas Huffines was proposing was his signature line that homeowners are only “renting” their houses from the government because they have to pay property taxes.
Abbott is promising to compress the school tax rate. That would spread the savings to commercial property owners, many of whom operate out of Texas. The savings would benefit the people who own those companies. The suggestion that savings would be passed along to renters, who live in commercially owned apartments, is specious at best in a time when housing demand is soaring, supply is short and pricing power is wholly in the hands of owners.
No one is going to want to relocate a business to Texas if employees have to pay a double-digit tax rate on the things they buy.