Banana Republic of Texas

In the Houston Chronicle story on the new yacht tax cap moving through the legislature, I saw this gem:

"With those boat sales went fuel sales, retail sales, mooring fees, service fees, restaurant sales, and every other money-generating sale associated with a large boat purchase."

Anybody see the assumption here? Anybody? If not, then describe for me the relationship between where a yacht is purchased and where it moors. Yachts bought in Florida never visit non-Floridian ports? Who knew?

Here's another fun quote from the article:

Rep. Mike Villarreal, D-San Antonio, said the measure is "crazy" given the state's two year budget shortfall of $15 billion to $27 billion.
"We're helping yacht owners while we are cutting our public schools by 21 percent and nursing homes by 33 percent," Villarreal said. "We're helping yacht owners … while we're eliminating all scholarships for college freshmen in 2012-13."
The bill is ill-timed, Villarreal said, because no data have been collected to show how yacht sales in Florida have been affected by the bill passed last year.

Tax cuts for the rich as an economic growth driver has been discredited at the state & national level (see unemployment rate figures and Texas public school budgets). Once again, ideology trumps evidence for "conservatives".