Editorials

It's traditional on Labor Day to celebrate jobs and job creation -- as traditional as end-of-summer barbecues and visits to the lake.

But not all jobs are created equal, Texas Workforce Commission Chairman Tom Pauken reminds us.

"Texas, I'm proud to say, wins regular praise as a top location for new jobs," Pauken says. "We have added more than a million new jobs over the past four years, with most of them in the private sector. That's why the latest July employment statistics for Texas look so odd."

It's the nature of most of the new jobs that disturbs him.

"Even though July employment increased in Texas by 17,500, the great majority of the growth -- roughly 16,000 jobs -- came from growth in the government sector," Pauken explains. "The private sector grew by a mere 1,500 jobs. Where is this 'government growth' coming from then since state spending has been held in check in recent years by Gov. (Rick) Perry and our legislative leaders who have resisted the temptation to grow state government faster than inflation plus population growth?"

The answer may be found in the dry details of a new report by the Texas Taxpayers and Research Association.

"You all know about that one-third cut in school property taxes which Gov. Perry and the Texas Legislature got passed into law back in the spring of 2006," Pauken says. "A new TTARA study reveals that local taxing entities have taken away most of the property tax relief we received through a combination of the 'stealth tax' of skyrocketing appraisals, higher tax rates, and bond elections. This has led to total property taxes in Texas being $1.7 billion higher today than they were in 2005."

But the promised tax relief has seemed elusive to most of us.

"I would suggest that a major reason for that is because local taxing entities in Texas have gone on a spending spree since the passage of that legislation, adding government jobs and increasing public spending at a pace far in excess of the growth of inflation," Pauken says.

And history shows that's not healthy, he contends.

"A significant reason why states like California, New Jersey, and Michigan have gotten themselves in such serious financial jams is that they ignored the importance of sound fiscal and tax policies designed to encourage job creation in the private sector, not the creation of more government jobs," Pauken says. "Unfortunately, many of our local taxing entities seem to have forgotten that important economic lesson as they continuously keep raising our local property taxes and increasing the number of government employees."

The creation of government jobs isn't quite the good news that the creation of private sector jobs is.

The only good news coming out of the TTARA study is that the property taxes would be $7 billion higher today but for the passage of the school finance reform legislation," Pauken says. "Nonetheless, appraisal reform and property tax relief need to be at the top of the agenda during the next session of the Texas Legislature in January 2009 if we are going to ever get local property taxes under control."

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