As a country, we spend nearly as much on domestic police (~$250B) as China does on their military each year. And from what I've seen, there is no correlation with increases in police spending and drops in crime rates. It's pretty disturbing if you think about it.
replyIt's a mass jobs program with a powerful set of unions behind it.
replyIt's an interesting question: Isn't Texas widely marketed as a 'low tax area'?
replyIt may be a 'low income tax area', with more regressive taxes used to fund the state and an equal or higher total? Texans need to pay for the same things, generally, as people in Massachusetts (though maybe they don't invest as much in schools, health care, etc.).
You vastly under-estimate how expensive social services programs are. The people of Texas can pay less have piles of money for 1984 equipped police cars and highschool football stadiums and other boondoggles by simply not having those programs.
replyIs it the right thing to do? ehhh....
That said Texas isn't that low tax overall compared to a lot of other states. They have pretty oppressive property taxes.