October 31, 2014 5:10 PM

A different kind of tax session

Implications of tax shifts coming into focus for the session

Dale Craymer of the Texas Taxpayers and Research Association is calling the 84^th session a tax session, as in a tax relief session.

That’s the kind of talk that makes business happy, but Craymer, a former chief revenue estimator who now crunches numbers for business, does not offer such predictions glibly. Among budget observers outside the comptroller’s office, Craymer and former chief deputy comptroller Billy Hamilton are considered the most steady handed in budget predictions for the session.

Craymer, contacted after this week’s Senate Finance session, predicted the state enough revenue growth in the last budget cycle to cover modest increases in transportation and education funding, with some rebates thrown in for taxpayers in the next session. Craymer won’t go as far as Stuart Greenfield yet (Quorum Report R&D, Oct. 29) because he hasn’t crunched all the numbers, but he expects TTARA’s predictions to be in the same ballpark.

By Kimberly Reeves