Texas Prosperity Misses Many
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Texas Prosperity Misses Many
9/29/2010 9:15:27 PM
UPDATED: Our friends at the Center for Public Policy Priorities proved a better source than our local newspaper on the Census data, so we made some corrections to show child poverty data by city. Also, more information about for whom Texas is and is not a low-tax state.

Two poverty-related news items today followed a report out from the Census with more information about how families and households across the Lone Star State are faring.

The first summarizes what is new in this data. Earlier this month, statewide Census numbers showed that child poverty spiked with the recession; in 2009, 1 in 4 Texas children were poor.

But the new data shed more light on how different communities are burdened differently. The Center for Public Policy Priorities has helpfully created this page, where you can see how your area fares in terms of poverty, as wealth as health coverage. In the Excel document on that page, you can see that child poverty exceeds 30% in several metro areas, including Brownsville, El Paso, Laredo, McAllen, and Texarkana, and is higher than the state average in College Station-Bryan, Corpus Christi, Odessa, Tyler, and Waco.

The second bit of news, brought to our attention by the Quorum Report, was a brief from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. The group found that Texas's label as a low-tax state doesn't apply to everyone. On average, we Texans pay some of the nation's lowest state and local taxes, but those numbers get skewed by the wealthiest, who pay only about 3 percent of their income directly to the state or their city. Contrast that with the average share of income spent on state and local taxes in the lowest-earning households. It is more than four times higher, 12.2%.

The brief goes on to say that, for the poorest 20% of families, Texas has the 5th highest tax rate in the nation, and for the next 20%, Texas ranks 17th highest for taxes. If this paper is correct, then, 4 out of 10 non-elderly Texans actually reside in a high-tax state. Only for the wealthiest 5% of Texans does the state rank among the bottom 5 for taxation. The brief concludes that the state financing system is pushing more families into poverty all the time.

To learn what you can do to help see that every child can grow up with financial security at home, visit our Family Financial Security policy page.
Posted by: Christine Sinatra | Submit comment | Tell a friend


 

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