Gardere Attorney Royce Poinsett Discusses Forecasted Tax Changes in ABJ Article

Gardere Government Affairs Attorney Royce Poinsett authored an article for the Austin Business Journal about the outlook for changes to Texas tax system in the upcoming legislative session.

According to Mr. Poinsett, optimists are hoping that the Legislature, made up mostly of conservatives, will elect to not raise any new tax revenue due to "healthy Texas economy." However, pessimists are looking at some foreboding fiscal and political issues that could point to the contrary, including unavoidable federal mandates and the possibility that the Texas Supreme Court will again in 2015 rule that the Texas public school finance system is unconstitutional due to equity and adequacy issues.

"The state's Medicaid obligations and other unavoidable federal mandates are increasing rapidly, taking up a larger percentage of the state's budget each year," Mr. Poinsett wrote. "The state's road system has long been underfunded, so much so that an additional $3 billion biennially is needed to simply maintain the 'current level of congestion.' "

Royce concluded the article stating that "despite a conservative group of lawmakers and flush state coffers, Texas businesses will still need to keep a close eye on the 2015 Texas Legislature."

The complete article can be found here.