Texans are known for their fierce loyalty to their home state, with some even considering themselves Texans first, then Americans. So it’s no surprise when Texans band together to protect themselves from outside forces seeking to change the state’s character and customs.
Thanks to Texas’ many years of economic success, people from all over America and beyond have immigrated to the state to participate in its bounty. They have brought with them ideas antithetical to Texas’ traditions, including a desire for bigger government.
In the face of this foreign influence on their ways, Texans banded together last week to pass Proposition 4, an amendment to the state’s constitution requiring a two-thirds majority in both houses of the Texas legislature, and the support of a majority of Texas voters in a referendum to enact income-tax legislation. Of those who voted, 74% supported the amendment.
Texas isn’t the first state to enact constitutional protections for its citizens’ incomes. The Wall Street Journal editorial board writes:
Nine states have no personal income tax, and Texas is the latest to protect a political model that leads to higher GDP growth, employment and wages. Tennessee voters in 2014 backed 2-to-1 a constitutional amendment banning its Legislature from introducing taxes on payroll or earned personal income. Last year a super-majority of Florida voters supported a constitutional amendment that requires a two-thirds vote of each chamber of the Legislature to raise current taxes or enact new ones.
These measures are important obstacles to future narrow majorities that might seek to impose an income tax. They’re all the more important as the success of low-tax states attracts migrants who often carry the bad political habits of their former homes.
The citizens of California, New York, Connecticut and other states have learned the hard way that once an income tax is imposed, spending balloons and the march to ever-higher taxes is on. Democrats in Illinois, prodded by public unions, are now trying to rewrite their state constitution to kill its requirement for a flat income tax. Taxpayers need every procedural fortification they can get from the relentless forces of tax and spend.
Read more here.
States like Illinois, New York, and Connecticut are all too eager to take your money and spend it poorly. I’ve told you to maximize your retirement by leaving income taxes behind. Finding states like Texas, where your income is constitutionally protected is a powerful start to any plan to move to a more retirement friendly locale.
