Special Session for Fixing the Budget Hole, but Also for Passing More Special Interest Tax Exemptions!
Yeah, we get it, the 2017 auto sales tax was written by idiots that forgot the effect it would have on fleet sales of trucks and rental cars. But then again car sales can also happen across state lines once the tax differences are high enough that people vote with their pocket books and purchase vehicles in other states and tag them in other states to evade the enormous tax hike passed this spring. And who can afford the tax easier? Jane and Joe Sixpack or the large oil and gas companies, Walmart, and other corporate donors?
So the House wasted no time in passing the special interest tax exemption by a vote of 63 to 20, with 16 excused and 2 not present, mostly Democrats on the no votes. The Emergency Clause cleared by the same margin but Rep Jon Echols filed a motion to reconsider the vote. Echols, also the Floor Leader and the first author of the legislation before removing his name from the bill and turning it over to another representative, did this as a friendly inoculation to prevent another representative from making another hostile motion, to freeze the process in place, perhaps to even bring the legislation back up in case the donor class feel they didn't get their money's worth.
