Marc Levin is associate editor of The Austin Review, a conservative monthly journal, and President of the American Freedom Center. He writes this op-ed today in the Chronicle proposing an alternative to the rather mundane public school finance proposals currently being floated in the special session of the Texas Legislature:

One almost universal assumption in the school finance debate is that everyone must pay the same type of tax. While no tax is pleasant, what if Texans could choose how they want to pay their share of the cost of public education? The Legislature should consider completely replacing the property tax for education with an increased statewide sales tax coupled with an opt-out for Texans who choose to pay a flat income-based assessment instead.
Such a system would have many benefits. First, it would allow for the complete elimination of highly unpopular school property taxes, which are subject to the vagaries of the appraisal process. As our society has become increasingly mobile and driven by technology, real property has become a less reliable measure of a person’s wealth.
The business property tax for education, which this proposal would also eliminate, is even more antiquated. Today, many highly profitable businesses have little physical property.
Furthermore, to encourage businesses to locate in Texas as opposed to the other 49 states, most economists agree that ideally there should be no state taxes on business. The current business property and franchise taxes, a gross receipts tax, or any other business tax make Texas less attractive for business investment and undermine the competitiveness of Texas businesses in exporting goods and services.
In addition to abolishing the residential and business school property tax, this proposal would also allow for full statewide equity in school funding without recapture. No longer would school districts be dependent on the taxable value of the property within their boundaries.
On the other side of the ledger, such a system would also provide greater revenue stability for the state. The drawback of a sales tax is that revenues can decline in absolute terms during a recession. However, average income tends to increase, or at least remain constant, during all economic periods. Therefore, those who choose an income assessment would provide a buffer that would help even out state revenues over time.

Read the entire op-ed, which is quite well-reasoned and, as a result, probably has a zero chance of being noticed in the current legislative session. I don’t know about you, but it seems to me rather pathetic that Texas legislators are considering basing something as important as public school finance on notoriously unreliable revenue generated from taxes on use of slot machines, consumption of cigarettes, and viewing of exotic dancers.