Robin Cox – 4/14/11

This page was last updated on April 14, 2011.

Taxes are still better in Texas; Robin Cox; Beaver County Times; April 14, 2011.

Below is a copy of the letter as I submitted it. The Times provided the letter’s title; I did not submit one.

Because of letter-to-the-editor limits (200 words max), you will find more detail in my critique of “Texas and taxes.”

While lobbying for more Pennsylvania taxation, “Texas and taxes” told us Texas “isn’t the paragon of tax virtue that it’s made out to be.” Let’s see how the two states compare according to the Tax Foundation, a source often cited by Times editorials.

In “State-Local Tax Burdens,” Texas ranks (smaller ranking is worse) 45th (7.9%) and Pennsylvania 10th (10.1%). In “Tax Freedom Day by State, 2011,” Texas ranks (smaller ranking is worse) 25th (April 7th) and Pennsylvania 11th (April 13th). This means Pennsylvanians worked six more days this year to pay our taxes than Texans. In “2011 State Business Tax Climate Index,” Texas ranks (smaller ranking is better) 13th and Pennsylvania 26th.

It was nice to see the editorial concede a natural gas extraction tax is “a tax that is paid by consumers,” not exactly the “bounty” for “the people of Pennsylvania to share” the editorial “Cash rewards” implied and a point previous editorials omitted.

Even if Texas isn’t a “paragon of tax virtue,” Pennsylvania is way behind and adding to our taxes will drop us further.