Responsibility of the Texas government on the property taxes

          Paying taxes is the responsibility of every citizen. The tax money helps to support the government and services that can maintain and improve the citizens’ lives. However, high tax rates may become a burden to the citizens because they have to pay for many other sources. Specifically, the increasing property tax has been a controversial issue in Texas that need the attention of the government to set tax relief for taxpayers.

          To argue about the responsibility of the Texas government on this issue, the article: “Texans deserve responsible government” has been published on Empower Texans on March 5, 2019. The article is written by Morgan Cherry. He is a Texan, a taxpayer in Eastland County, and the owner of the 3R Ranch. He expresses his opinions about the high rates of property taxes in Texas. He directs Texans who oppose their high property taxes to support his ideas. Cherry blames the escalation of the tax for the Texas government because the government does not control it.

To clarify his argument, Cherry gives readers the information about his 2019 property tax which increases 25% within the last 5 years which is observed with the layoffs of oil, drilling business and going down of the produce prices. Moreover, the wages of citizens slowly increase which forces some people to have to work more than one job at the same time to afford for their lives. Later, he emphasizes that he opposes with the government on how they increase the taxes on the improvement of the farm and ranch lands. He points out that the prices for selling the farm and ranch lands are much staying the same, but they have to pay for the improvement on their lands and even pay much higher on their property taxes. Cherry states that the government should put more attention and change the legislature that can reduce the taxes which continue to go up every year. The government needs to take real actions to put the appropriate tax rates on the properties.

          However, there are some points in his argument that may not be persuasive to the readers. For example, he should give more examples of the increasing of the property taxes besides his 2019 property tax statement. The argument lacks the statistics and data to support his opinions. Cherry should show the readers with the statistics of the “layoffs of the oil and drilling business,” the decrease of the “livestock prices.” Moreover, his statement “statistics appear to show that urban home prices have recovered…” is not totally convincing because which “statistics” he mentions about are. He does not give the readers the statistics with real numbers.

         Overall, Cherry has made a good argument to strongly express his opinions about the responsibility of the government on the control of the property taxes. However, this argument cannot completely persuade the readers because of the lack of supporting data for his statements. 

         

         

"The Real Emergency for Texas"

             Building the border wall between the United States and Mexico has been a controversial issue for a long time. President Donald Trump has even declared it as the national emergency. Most of the border wall is shared with Texas. Therefore, this issue would also be the emergency for Texas state; or we have another problem that much more “emergency” for the health and safety of Texans than building the wall.
            To clarify which is the most important thing in need of Texans, the article: “The real state of emergency in Texas? Our lack of health insurance” has been published on Houston Chronicle on February 27, 2019. This article is written by Taimur Safder. He is a cardiology fellow at the Baylor Heart and Vascular Institute in Dallas. Safder expresses his point of views about one significant issue in Texas which is a large number of people not having health insurance. He makes an argument on why he thinks the border wall will not affect the Texans’ lives as the lack of health insurance. Safder directs readers who are Texans and especially interested in the health insurance to support his idea that Texas politicians need to take more attention to Texans’ health care rather than spending billions of dollars for the border wall.
           To do that, Safder starts his argument by telling the readers a story of Mr. Johnson and his wife, who do not qualify for Medicaid and cannot afford their medications. They have to take turns to have medications. Later, he persuades the readers by telling them another story of Mr. Gonzalez and his daughter Lucy who also suffer because of not having health insurance. Safder relies on real situations that he observes as a doctor in Texas. Moreover, Safder gives a lot of data to prove that Texas has a high percentage of uninsured residents. Those evidence helps to strengthen his discussion. His data is also persuasive because he links the readers to the sources of each information during his argument.
           Overall, Safder has made a good argument because it informs Texans and alerts Texas politicians about the lack of having health insurance actually affecting the lives of Texans. He emphasizes that providing health insurance for Texans is the real “emergency.” He also suggests the solution for that is to expand the Medicaid which needs more actions from political leaders to change Texans’ lives.