State Representative Mike Villarreal

Texas House of Representatives FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE March 11, 2013 Contact: Peter Clark Phone: 512-463-0532 Email: peter.clark@house.state.tx.us

Comptroller Reports Billions Lost in Tax Exemptions

Villarreal Bill Takes Tax Breaks off Autopilot
Austin - The state Comptroller's new Tax Exemption and Tax Incidence report shows that tax expenditures this year will cost the state more than $37 billion and directly cost school districts over $6 billion. Representative Mike Villarreal pointed to the report as evidence that the legislature should pass his bill to improve legislative oversight. "The legislature should do its job. We scrub the budget every two years to determine which programs to continue funding instead of committing expenditures in perpetuity," said Rep. Villarreal. "Let's do the same thing with taxes. We need to scrub our tax code and put an expiration date on our tax expenditures." Rep. Villarreal has filed HJR 92 and HB 1556 to place a 10 year limit on all future tax breaks and establish a Select Commission on Periodic Tax Preference Review to analyze all tax breaks currently in state law. The Commission would make recommendations to the legislature to eliminate, change or continue the tax preferences. Though the Comptroller's report provides data on the exemptions, it does not provide an analysis of their effectiveness or any recommendations. "Outdated tax giveaways divert scarce resources away from our neighborhood schools," said Rep. Villarreal. "Tax exemptions should not be on autopilot. It's time to stop treating tax exemptions as entitlements."

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