73R10820 MPC-D
          By Eckels, Earley, et al.                            H.C.R. No. 143
                              HOUSE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION
    1-1        WHEREAS, The national administration's budget proposal for
    1-2  fiscal year 1994 includes a federal energy tax provision based on
    1-3  energy content as measured in British thermal units (BTUs); and
    1-4        WHEREAS, The tax would be imposed at a basic rate of 25.7
    1-5  cents per million BTUs, with an additional tax imposed on refined
    1-6  petroleum products at the basic rate plus a 34.2 cents per million
    1-7  BTUs supplemental rate; and
    1-8        WHEREAS, To be phased in over a three-year period and indexed
    1-9  for inflation, this proposal differs from current motor fuels tax
   1-10  policy in that it does not exempt state and local governments from
   1-11  taxation; and
   1-12        WHEREAS, Should the proposal be approved by the United States
   1-13  Congress, the  administration estimates the BTU energy tax would
   1-14  cost $110 a year for every American or $440 a year for a family of
   1-15  four; and
   1-16        WHEREAS, Texas, as a petroleum producing state, would be
   1-17  especially burdened by the BTU tax; the Railroad Commission of
   1-18  Texas estimates that the BTU tax will cost Texans an additional $54
   1-19  million a day, with the state bearing 12 percent of the total
   1-20  United States tax burden; and
   1-21        WHEREAS, The proposed energy tax would increase both the cost
   1-22  of fuel and the cost of virtually every product and service that
   1-23  requires energy to produce or perform, creating disastrous economic
   1-24  consequences for the State of Texas and the nation as a whole; and
    2-1        WHEREAS, In addition to placing a tremendous drag on the
    2-2  economy, the proposed energy tax could destroy American jobs, make
    2-3  United States companies and workers less competitive, and impose an
    2-4  unfair burden on lower- and middle-income families who spend
    2-5  relatively more of their income on energy than higher-income
    2-6  families; now, therefore, be it
    2-7        RESOLVED, That the 73rd Legislature of the State of Texas
    2-8  hereby urge the Congress of the United States not to adopt the
    2-9  administration's  proposed BTU energy tax; and, be it further
   2-10        RESOLVED, That the Texas secretary of state forward official
   2-11  copies of this resolution to the president of the United States, to
   2-12  the speaker of the house of representatives and president of the
   2-13  senate of the United States Congress, and to all members of the
   2-14  Texas delegation to the congress with the request that it be
   2-15  officially entered in the Congressional Record as a memorial to the
   2-16  Congress of the United States of America.