The myth that Texas never raises taxes?

Things like Section 7 of Senate Bill 1811 of the Texas Legislature, with passenger airlines and Amtrak getting nickeled (literally) with a five-cent per-drink-served tax, instead of old beverage permit fees, show that it's a myth indeed.

And, no, not surprising ... this is the "smoke" half of smoke and mirrors.

Plus, is it business-friendly to make airlines go through all this paperwork? And, how do you determine a drink served in Texas with an airplane?

Beyond that, SB 1811 has plenty of other smoke, like speeding up business reporting requirements to the last day of August rather than Sept. 15, for example:

Each permittee who is liable for the taxes imposed by this subchapter shall file not later than the last workday of August of each odd-numbered year the report that would otherwise have been due on or before September 15 of that year under Subsection (a) without accounting for any credit or discount to which the permittee is entitled. The report must contain estimates for the month of August of the information ordinarily required on the report if it were filed in September.

Another bit of smoke? Increasing the cigarette tax a teeny bit:

SECTION 7.06. Section 154.021(b), Tax Code, is amended to read as follows:
(b) The tax rates are:
(1) $70.51 [up from $70.50] per thousand on cigarettes weighing three pounds or less per thousand;

A penny a thousand? Not even "nickeling," BUT ...

It IS a tax increase.

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And, Tricky Ricky, aka Gov. Helmethair, and a GOP with a supermajority in the state House and the equivalent of one in the state Senate still aren't likely to get a budget passed without a special session.