Feeding Time Again At City Hall

Add DR Horton to the growing list of corporations feeding at the trough of tax dollars that has become Fort Worth City Hall. The Star-Telegram is reporting that the country's largest homebuilder wants sales tax refunds worth up to $86,000,000.00 from the city. So what do the taxpayers of Fort Worth get in return for their generosity? New jobs? A fancy new high-rise in downtown? Nothing, nada, zilch. That's right, the citizens of Cowtown, who would continue to pay the full sales tax rate, would get absolutely nothing. Under terms of the deal, the city would kickback 1% of the sales tax paid by Horton on their purchases. Basically, its just a bookkeeping trick. Horton would record all their purchases as having gone through their Cowtown headquarters.

Being the good corporate citizens that they are, Horton agreed to pay the full amount of the crime tax and the bus tax. For those that don't know, the crime tax is the extra sales tax we pay because the city council won't fulfill its primary obligation of providing a fully funded police department. The bus tax is the tax we pay so poor people can ride the buses cheaper. Here's a suggestion for the city council. Fort Worth already has one of the highest sales tax rates in the state. If companies are balking at the high taxes, perhaps that is a message to tighten our belts and reduce the sales tax rate for all citizens, not just mega-size corporate welfare recipients like D.R. Horton.

The city council delayed a vote on the tax break scheme to allow for citizen input. Cowtowners might want give them some.