Villarreal tackes fairness in taxation & other issues

State Rep. Mike Villarreal (photo)

State Rep. MIke Villarreal continued his work to support working families and responsive government when he filed the first of several proposals for the 80th Legislative Session today.(Monday-Nov.13th)

The veteran legislator submitted the Sales Information Act (HB 133), the Clean Elections Act (HB 111) and two bills to improve early education (HB 134 & HB 135).

The Sales Information Act would end a practice that allows the wealthiest property owners to dodge accurate tax appraisals while forcing middle and low–income residential property owners to pay full price.

“By not having sales information, in 2005 alone, we gave the wealthiest property owners over $5 billion of taxpayers' money - money that could have gone to improving our children's education, or investing in transportation to get us out of traffic,” Villarreal said.

Villarreal said many residential homeowners pay taxes based on nearly 100 percent of their property's value, while commercial and high-end homeowners pay below 50 percent in many cases.

The Clean Elections Act (HB 111) establishes a maximum, aggregate contribution limit of $100,000 by an individual for all state races, PACs and political parties who support state races. Texans for Public Justice is expected to release an analysis of big dollar donors' impact on the recent elections later this week.

Improvements to early education remain a cornerstone of Villarreal's work. The Representative kicked off his efforts to bring high-quality, affordable child care for working Texas families by filing HB 134 and 135.

HB 134 improves standards for those seeking early childhood education certification.

HB 135 add pre-kindergarten classes to the state’s standards for class size in kindergarten, first, second, third and fourth-grade classes.