Lunch with Sen. Kevin Eltife

Texas State Senator Kevin Eltife (R-Tyler) was the featured speaker at today's Leaders' Luncheon hosted by the Texarkana Chamber of Commerce. It's good to hear that other states face the same challenges we face here in Arkansas, albeit on a larger scale.

The major topics covered at lunch included the highly-publicized water issues Texans face, including the proposed Marvin Nichols Reservoir in northeast Texas. He also covered toll roads (and selling them off to private companies), the teacher retirement system, the margin tax, fuel taxes, and paying for current projects by borrowing money. A fiscal conservative, Eltife railed against borrowing money to pay for needed current projects. He was bold enough to propose a one or two-cent hike in the gasoline tax to pay for projects and tie it to inflation. Paying cash for capital projects -- even if raising revenue is necessary to do it -- is better than borrowing the money, he says.

Texas does not have an income tax, but they still get their revenue. I have to pay an annual "occupation tax" to keep my Texas law license. The property taxes in Texas are the main source of revenue for local services.

To put the Texas Senate in perspective, Eltife represents 675,924 people. Texas has 32 Congressmen serving in the U.S. House in Washington, but only 31 serve in the Texas Senate. Therefore, the Texas Senate districts are larger than Congressional districts.