Reply #117: Think about the situation in Austin Texas

[sharonking21]

I agree that they do much more than pick strawberries. However those who take non-farm jobs contribute more than they are given credit for.

Undocumented workers here end up paying for school taxes through their rent. Not sure how school is financed in your area, but here it is financed mainly through property taxes levied by school districts. These property taxes are a "pass-thru" item; when property taxes go up, so does your rent. I rent and each year I look at the new appraisals and rates on the condo I rent on the Travis County Appraisal website, just to get an idea of what is coming down the pike. People often make the mistake of thinking that renters don't pay property taxes. Untrue.

Also, undocumented workers here pay a state and municipal sales tax of around 8.5 cents on each dollar of purchases, just like everyone else. But just like the poor who are citizens, this flat tax takes a larger proportional bite out of their income than it does from others.

Texas has a rather regressive tax system--no income tax, just sales taxes and fees/fines--and the fee/fine system of generation of revenue is becoming much more pronounced, both at the state, county, and municipal levels. Most people think of this as innocuous, but it isn't. To some degree, undocumented workers here pay these fines and fees.

For example, seems fair, right, that everyone should pay the same to get into state parks, etc. (Used to be free, of course). But it goes much further than this. You have always had to pay to have an automobile title transferred here and you are legally obligated to have it officially transferred. They just raised that fee from about $40 to around $65. That is a lot for anyone who doesn't have much money.

If you are poor or even out of work, you find these kinds of things facing you at every turn. My son lost his job back during the dot.com bust. He had no money whatsoever. He got a temporary job driving a limousine. However, once he got the job, he found he had to pay out about $200 to get a limousine driver's license. The family scratched together the money, but what if you do not have these family resources?

Most politicians here are unwilling to say they want to, Oh-My-God, raise taxes, so, here anyway, they are quietly expanding the fee and fine system to pay for state and local services while touting how "they didn't raise taxes." I have actually checked the proportion of Texas state revenue raised this way and between 1982 and 2003, and the percentage raised this way has doubled. It is an egregious con game.

Further, it is particularly bruising to anyone who doesn't have much money. Municipalities run up their revenues by handing out tickets for this and that. Okay, if you are middle class or well-off, no problem, you can just pay the damn fine. It is a mere annoyance. However, if you are poor, as are the undocumented workers, you are much much more likely to not have the money to pay the original fine on time. Then it really gets nasty--you have fines on top of fines on top of fines. Most of the people on the arrest warrant website for the City of Austin are on that list because they haven't paid (or haven't been able to pay) these fines upon fines.

Another way here in Texas that undocumented workers end up contributing to the coffers of the state is through the state-run lotteries. When it was a new thing, even middle-class people played the lotteries a bit, but that did not last. Mostly those who buy lottery tickets now are the working poor, hoping for a big dream payoff. That includes undocumented workers. Yes, they would have to have a citizen claim the money, but hope springs eternal when you are really down and out.

If undocumented workers want cigarettes, they pay the state cigarette tax. If they want alcohol, they pay the state alcohol tax. If they want gasoline they pay the state motor fuels tax.

What I am trying to illustrate is that, while we may end up paying the discrepancy between what they contribute to revenues and take out of services, the discrepancy has often been grossly exaggerated, as is the extent to which they all want to come up here, make money, and send it all back to Mexico.

Most of the first generation of undocumented workers want to stay here, and the second generation ends up paying more of their way than the previous generation, and by the time the third generation rolls around, they pay their own way.