Chapter 12

Question 1

The Texas state budget is exceeded only by those of California ____

Answer 1

New York

Question 2

What is not true about recent state budgets?

Answer 2

Demands for state services have decreased over time

Question 3

Adjusting for population and inflation, state spending grew at an average annual of ____ over the last 20 years

Answer 3

0.8%

Question 4

During the 2012-2013 fiscal year, what percent of estimated Texas revenues came from state taxes?

Answer 4

44%

Question 5

During the 2012 - 2013 fiscal year, what percent of estimated Texas revenues came from the federal government?

Answer 5

39%

Question 6

The income tax became available to the national government with the ratification of which amendment to the United States Constitution?

Answer 6

16

Question 7

Individual and corporate income taxes immediately became the national government’s major source of funding and today, the constitute approximately ____ of federal tax revenue

Answer 7

56%

Question 8

Property taxes were once the major source of state revenue until ___

Answer 8

the Great Depression of the 1930s

Question 9

In 1931, Texas adopted a tax on ____

Answer 9

cigarettes

Question 10

Broadly based taxes collected on the retail price of most items are called ____

Answer 10

general sales tax

Question 11

Selective sales taxes in Texas are ____

Answer 11

applied to liquor sales

Question 12

What kinds of taxes are included in the retail prices of the goods and services?

Answer 12

Hidden taxes

Question 13

Texas’s largest single individual revenue source is ____

Answer 13

federal funds

Question 14

All the following items have a hidden tax included in their prices except ___

Answer 14

real estate

Question 15

A ____ is a tax on raw material when they are extracted from their natural state

Answer 15

severance tax

Question 16

What is Texas’s general sales tax on retail purchases?

Answer 16

6.25%

Question 17

The general sales tax yielded what percent of the state’s revenue?

Answer 17

24.8%

Question 18

What taxes are the major sources of revenue for virtually all local government, cities, counties, and special duties?

Answer 18

Property taxes

Question 19

What has occurred because of Texas’s state government imposed mandates on local governments?

Answer 19

State taxes have remained low, bit local taxes are higher than in many states

Question 20

Property taxes are the major source of revenue for virtually all of the following governments except ____

Answer 20

national government

Question 21

Which tax may be applied to two major types of property including real property and personal property?

Answer 21

Ad valorem

Question 22

Ad valorem taxes may not be applied to what?

Answer 22

The sale of real estate

Question 23

Ad valorem means ___

Answer 23

“according to value”

Question 24

What has the authority to determine the property tax rate on real property in a county?

Answer 24

The commissioners’ courts

Question 25

What tax is not considered one of the most effective at easing revenue?

Answer 25

Narrowed based

Question 26

____ is a tax designed to be paid by a large number of taxpayers

Answer 26

Broad based tax

Question 27

In the battle over taxation, one of the most intense issues is ____

Answer 27

what should be taxed

Question 28

What is not a common political rationalization for taxing various groups differently?

Answer 28

To appease the general public back home

Question 29

A tax with the intent of exerting social or economic control by reducing taxes on approved behaviors or imposing higher taxes on undesirable activities is____

Answer 29

regulatory tax

Question 30

Regulatory taxes are sometimes called _____

Answer 30

Sin tax

Question 31

An exercise of “sin” tax is levied on the sale, manufacture, or use of all the following expect

Answer 31

snacks

Question 32

The gasoline tax is an example of what type of tax?

Answer 32

benefits received

Question 33

What does not fall under the category of the benefits received principle?

Answer 33

Local school taxes

Question 34

The most common ability to pay taxes are levied except ____

Answer 34

gasoline

Question 35

What is not seldom taxed?

Answer 35

Real estate

Question 36

What percentage of Americans pays no income tax at all?

Answer 36

40%

Question 37

Tax rates that place more of a burden on low and middle income taxpayers than on wealthier ones care called _____

Answer 37

regressive tax rates

Question 38

Declining marginal propensity to consume means ____

Answer 38

as income increases, spending increases proportionately

Question 39

What income groups in Texas paid the highest percentage in effective taxes?

Answer 39

Lower

Question 40

What state does not collect a small percentage of their resident’s income than Texas?

Answer 40

Alaska

Question 41

____ advocate that taxes on higher income individuals should be kept low to allow them t save and invest to stimulate the economy

Answer 41

supply siders

Question 42

For the 2012-2013 biennium, Texas will receive approximately ____ in federal funds, which represents 30% of state revenue

Answer 42

$71 billion

Question 43

At the beginning of each legislative session, the ___ reports to the legislature the total amount of revenues expected from current taxes and other sources

Answer 43

Comptroller of public accounts

Question 44

State bonds that are repaid with eh revenues from the service they financed are called ____

Answer 44

revenue bonds

Question 45

General obligation bonds cannot be used for what?

Answer 45

Higher education bonds financed by tuition revenue

Question 46

It is through what process that the legislature legally authorizes the state to spend money to provide its various programs and services?

Answer 46

appropriations

Question 47

Trading votes among legislators, especially to fund local projects to benefit their constituents, is called ____

Answer 47

logrolling

Question 48

Texas ranked ____ among the 50 states in overall per capita spending

Answer 48

47th

Question 49

The most costly service in Texas is ____

Answer 49

education

Question 50

In 1949, which law increased state funding and established the Texas Education Agency which carries out the states educational program

Answer 50

Gilmer Aiken

Question 51

The State Board of Education does all of the except

Answer 51

make routine managerial decisions

Question 52

The Texas’s ranking of population older than 25 with a high school diploma is ____

Answer 52

50th

Question 53

Which law “recaptured” property tax revenue from property wealthy school districts and distributed those in property poor districts, in an effort to equalize the financing of all districts throughout Texas?

Answer 53

Robin Hood plan

Question 54

When did the state of Texas initiate the top 10% plan?

Answer 54

When the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals riled that race could not be considered in affirmative action admission policies

Question 55

What is not a level of state involvement in health care?

Answer 55

When advocates socialized medicine

Question 56

TxDOT planned to use comprehensive development agreement with private entities to develop a highly ambitious and controversial 50 year program to supplement existing highways. What was this program called?

Answer 56

Trans Texas Corridor

Question 57

What did the Trans Texas Corridor not include?

Answer 57

Housing

Question 58

According to the Davis essay, the slow decrease of support from the state has lead many colleges and universities to rely more on ____

Answer 58

part time faculty, increased class sizes and offering fewer courses