Income tax? Whatever.

Along with Alaska, Florida, Nevada, South Dakota, Washington, and Wyoming, Texas is one of the few states with no income tax. Sounds great right? Well kind of. Texas is going to get its money some way or another. Although Texans do pay more when it comes to other forms of taxation whether it is sales taxes, property taxes, fuel taxes, etc, it would be safe to say the tax burden is relatively low.

Our tax-utopia looks like the Promised Land to those in states like California with suicidal tax policies leaving a fairly powerful statement on the migration data. Though there is fairly inconclusive evidence that people under low tax governments appear happier than the proud patriots in high tax nations such as Brazil, there is substantial evidence that income tax less states create more jobs and grow faster.

On the other hand, the less money the government receives, the less it can spend, and this spending burden is particularly noticeable when it comes to financing education. This creates debt on the local level to cover the cost of school districts and public maintenance projects. I don’t think that Texans would be so keen to adopt a state income tax just to ease the stress on our government’s coin purse. But hey, maybe one day, one Pringles can at a time, 8.25% at a time, we can fix some potholes on Metric Blvd.