We have to spread the word! The Texas Tuition Set Aside Law
is an Obama style share the wealth TAX on Students simply because they are
going to college. We have to call our State Senators and State Representatives.
We have to call the Governor. Last week I wrote an article exposing this tax. This new article below explains, in
detail, how and when the bills passed creating this tuition set aside required
under Texas Education Code, Sections 56.011, 56.012, 56.095, and 56.465
What is the Texas 20%
Tuition Tax?
This is simply outrageous! If you decide to work hard and
get a higher education, a minimum 20% of the college tuition you pay does not
even pay for your education, it gets taken out to pay for someone else’s
education. This is thousands of dollars we are talking about! Your two jobs in
college to pay tuition goes to someone else to get free tuition. Even worse,
you might even not have the money to pay for tuition so you have to get a
student loan to pay for college. You still get hit with the 20% tuition set
aside tax. So basically you are being forced to take out a student LOAN in
order to pay the tuition tax so that someone can go to college for free! Or if
you take out a loan to pay for tuition and you also get a grant, in effect you
are taking out a loan with interest to pay for your own grant. How does that
make sense? I all about helping people go to college via student loans and even
grants and scholarships, but we cannot target struggling college students to
pay the tuition of other people.
How did we get the
20% Tuition Tax?
After my article last week, I have had many people almost
not believe me because it does not seem possible that we have a law like this
in Republican controlled Texas. Well, I did extensive research over the weekend
and I looked up all the history and all the votes (I explain the history of
this law in more detail below). Here is the quick overview: The 20% student Tax
we have now is a result of a 2003 law that was passed. In 2003 NOT ONE Texas
State Representative objected to 20% being inserted into the set aside “tuition
tax” law, and NOT ONE State Rep. in 2003 offered an amendment to the bill that
would end the tuition set aside tax. Yep, even conservatives we know and love
today did not oppose the tax when it was passed in 2003. Since 2003 there have
been a FEW Texas conservatives who have stood up and tried to present bills to
end this tax, but those bills never saw the light of day. Even conservatives we
know and love today have never stood up against this tax or tried to get it
repealed, even though they ALL KNOW ABOUT IT. This is VERY disappointing! I believe
if we can inform people and create enough outrage, we can wake up the
Legislature and STOP THIS TAX! And when your legislature tries to tell you that
he or she has been against this tax since 2003 and does not want it, then
kindly ask them when they tried to amend the bill or repeal it. If they have
never presented anything to be passed to end this tax then, no matter what they
say, they are for it or at least are complacent in letting it continue!
Below is the Detailed
explanation of how we ended up with the currently enforced tuition set aside
program (a MINIMUM 20 percent tax on student tuition) This explanation only
shows a detailed view of the Texas HOUSE of Representatives. I did not have
time to examine the Texas Senate.
1)
Sometime before 2003, the Texas legislature put
in the Texas Education code a requirement for not less than 15% and not more
than 20% of a student’s tuition to be set aside as financial aid for other
students (a tuition tax).
2)
In 2003 (78th legislative session)
Morrison and Brown, F. authored HB 3015 to amend the Texas Education Code to lower the set
aside percentages (tuition tax). The bill text called for a minimum 7.5% and maximum 10%. This
is a step in the right direction by lowering the tuition tax, but still bad
because it keeps the tuition tax.
3)
HB 3015 was then sent to the house education
committee where it was completely changed and renamed CSHB 3015. This new CSHB
3015 text changed the set aside rate to 15% of all tuition charged to
a student in excess of $46 per semester credit hour. This moved the set aside
rate at a minimum of 15% with no maximum, but it would apply only to tuition in
excess of $46 per semester hour (so basically if you go to a cheap college
where semester hours are less than $46 you don’t pay the tax but if you go to a
college with more expensive credit hours then you pay the tax)
a)
Shockingly,
NO ONE made an amendment to do away with the tuition set aside (the tax on
students who are paying tuition).
b)
An amendment was made by Villarreal and Menendez
to create a graduate student tuition tax at a rate of not less than 15%. This amendment to tax graduate tuition (in
addition to the already proposed tax on undergraduate tuition) was adopted
WITHOUT OBJECTION (that means NOT ONE STATE REP spoke up to oppose this
amendment or call to have a record vote to vote in opposition). Vote details
from House Journal.
c)
An amendment was made by Rose, Bonnen,
Villarreal and Menendez to change the undergraduate tuition tax from NO LESS
than 15% to NO LESS than 20%. This
amendment to INCREASE the Undergraduate Student Tax to 20% was adopted WITHOUT OBJECTION (that
means NOT ONE STATE REP spoke up to oppose this amendment or call to have a
record vote to vote in opposition) Vote details from House Journal.
5)
CSHB 3015’s tuition tax rate (no less than 15%
for Undergraduate and no less than 20% for Graduate) stayed the same through
the rest of the House amendments, and then made it through the Conference Committee
with the Senate, and then was passed by both the House and the Senate and sent
to the Governor who signed it. This tuition tax is still in effect TODAY.
6)
The FINAL House and Senate vote on CSHB 3015 (HB3015) was not
unanimous. There were some who voted against the final bill. But voting against
the final bill was NOT a vote against the tuition tax because if a State Rep.
voted against the final bill then the Rep. was in effect voting to keep things
the way they already were, including the pre 2003 tuition tax rate of no less
than 10 and no more than 20 would have remained. Basically, even if a state Rep
voted against the final bill, they still were voting FOR a tuition tax. The
only way for a State Rep. to vote against and/or show opposition to the tuition
tax would have been to propose an amendment, or vote in favor of an amendment
to end the tax. No one proposed to end the tax, in fact, all votes in the house
to increase the tax were passed without objection.
Since 2003, who has
opposed the Texas Tuition Tax?
Unfortunately, since 2003 there have only been a few
conservatives who have tried to oppose this tax ad offer bills to end it. Their
efforts have all been shut down. Heck, I did not even know about this tax until
recently because it was being well concealed. There was a website created some
years back to try to expose this tuition tax but I guess it never was able
to gain enough steam to end the tax. Well, it is time we break this issue wide
open!
Recent Bills Proposed to End Tuition Tax:
This is likely not a
complete list of the people who have proposed bills to end the tuition tax so
if I am missing a bill please let me know. One thing is certain, there have
been few bills proposed to end the tax and none of them were supported or got
passed.
Dan Patrick in 2009 introduced and passed a bill (SB 1304)
to force colleges to reveal to students that they were having a large portion
of their tuition set aside to pay for other people’s tuition. Then in 2011,
bills were introduced to END THE TUITION TAX. SB 444 was introduced by Patrick and Birdwell in the Senate
and HB 587 by Kleinschmidt and Parker in the House. These bills
NEVER MADE IT OUT OF COMMITTEE! My State Representative James White informed me
that he also submitted a bill in 2013 to stop this tuition set aside but his
bill was also never heard in committee.
Demand that the Texas
Legislature STOPS the Tuition Tax on College Students. Repeal the Tuition Set
Aside Program!
So here we are today. We have an Obama type share the wealth
program that unfairly taxes only college students to pay for the tuition of
other college students. Since deregulation and this set aside bill in 2003,
tuition has increased nearly 100%. Students cannot even afford college, in part
because at least 20% of their bill is an extra tax to pay for someone else’s
bill.
There has not been sufficient information and outrage about
this tax but that needs to change right now. We have a Republican dominated House
but a bill to kill this tax cannot even make it out of and committee picked by
Moderate Speaker Joe Straus, nor can a bill be passed out out of the less Republican
dominated Senate.
We need to take a
stand and Texas needs to Stop this Tuition Tax!
