SELF IMPROVEMENT

extending  business  tax break

Texas lawmakers voted Thursday to extend a tax break for businesses with revenues of less than $1 million a year at a time the state is facing a massive budget shortfall.

The House Ways and Means Committee voted 8-0 to send the bill to the full House with three lawmakers absent.

The bill by Republican state Rep. Harvey Hilderbran would continue a tax break that will cost the state almost $150 million over the next two years. Under the original business franchise tax, only companies with revenues of less than $600,000 a year were exempt from the tax.

Texas lawmakers are $27 billion short of what the state needs to maintain current services. The House has approved a bare-bones budget that would cut billions from education and health care.