Gov. Greg Abbott is accusing his Democratic challenger, state Rep. Gina Hinojosa of Austin, of supporting a state income tax, a charge she rejects, in a governor's race that polling averages show is close, eight days before early voting begins.
In an interview with CBS News Texas published Sunday, Abbott pointed to a May 2019 House vote on HJR 38, the proposed constitutional amendment banning a personal income tax in Texas. CBS News Texas reported that Hinojosa voted against the measure, which passed the House 100-42 and was approved by 76% of voters that November.
"It's a fact that she voted for an income tax," Abbott said in the interview. He also cited a February 2016 KXAN interview, given when Hinojosa was running for the Legislature, in which she said Texas leans too heavily on property and sales taxes because it lacks income taxes, which she called the missing "third leg of that stool."
Hinojosa has denied supporting an income tax. Asked about the 2019 vote in late September, she told CBS News Texas: "I am not for a state income tax. It is already banned in the Texas Constitution.
We need less grandstanding and more of a governor who works to deliver real results to Texans." CBS News Texas said it had asked her campaign about the 2016 video and was awaiting a response.
The 2019 amendment
Before the amendment passed, the Texas Constitution already barred a personal income tax unless voters approved one in a statewide referendum. The House Research Organization's analysis of HJR 38 summarized opponents' view that the amendment was unnecessary for that reason, and that the potential benefits of an income tax should not be shut off by a constitutional ban.
