"Be fruitful and multiply": TX bill cuts property taxes for couples with 10 kids
State Rep. Bryan Slaton's bill would reward "quiverfull" Christian families
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A Texas lawmaker has filed a bill that would reduce or eliminate property taxes for families with at least four children, a move clearly designed to benefit “quiverfull” Christian families (like the Duggars) who have the resources to have several kids and own a home.
State Rep. Bryan Slaton introduced HB 2889 earlier this week with a reference to his Christian faith, saying “With this bill, Texas will start saying to couples: ‘Get married, stay married, and be fruitful and multiply.’”
The bill specifies that a “qualifying married couple” is “a man and a woman who are legally married to each other, neither of whom have ever been divorced.” So a same-sex couple would not receive any of these benefits even with a baseball team of adopted kids.
Neither would the parents in The Brady Bunch.
Neither would a woman who has the courage to leave her abusive husband after they’ve had several children together.
Neither would a married couple with only a measly three kids. (Four is the minimum to receive any benefit.)
The bill goes on to say the tax credits would be in effect even if one spouse dies… but only as long as the surviving spouse remains single.
Even setting aside the problem of a tax break aimed at conservative Christians, Slaton’s statement suggests his bill is meant to encourage people to have larger families. But if you’re having more kids for the tax benefits, your priorities are messed up. (“Honey, let’s have another and save an extra 10% on our taxes.”)
This is a wasteful way to help larger families, too. Couples that can afford this many children can almost certainly afford to pay their property taxes. A single parent of one child needs relief a lot more than a married couple with 10 children. And given all the ways Texas is forcing women to give birth against their will, there are bound to be more women with unwanted pregnancies in dire need of financial help.
Slaton doesn’t care because his faith leads him to ignore the people who suffer because of his decisions.
This bill has other consequences, too. Slaton wants the state government to collect less money from the largest families… even though, if those kids attend public school, they would be using more government resources. The math just doesn’t work out. It also benefits white families more than most, even if that’s not mentioned in the bill, because families of color are far less likely to own a home. (There a reason for that, but Texas Republicans don’t want it taught in public schools.)
Again, Slaton doesn’t care. Neither do his Republican colleagues. The state may have a budget surplus, but you can bet that money will not go towards covering paid parental leave, or reducing health care costs, expanding Medicaid, making education more affordable, or any of the proven ways to help people with limited resources.
It’s not like this is an original idea either. It’s been tried before!
This isn’t surprising given the source. The Houston Press points out that Slaton has a long history of trying to harm people outside his conservative Christian bubble:
Slaton, who is a former minister, is one of the state’s most fervent conservative culture warriors when it comes to painting regressive polices as Christian dogma. It’s Slaton who has proposed banning minors from all drag events, something that could potentially outlaw trans people from being around children at all, depending on how the law is written or interpreted. Slaton has spent much of his time in the state legislature tacking on various anti-LGBT amendments to bills as part of his ideological crusade.
On top of that, he’s been connected to Jake Neidert, a Christian nationalist who has called for trans people to be executed in the streets. Neidert formerly worked as an intern for Slaton before getting hired as legislative director for State Rep. Tony Tinderholt (R-Arlington), Slaton’s close partner in many bills aimed at curtailing the rights of LGBT people.
It’s not clear if this bill will have enough support from other Republicans to become law, but bills like this aren’t always filed in order to pass. They’re sometimes filed to make a political statement about what truly matters to elected officials. Slaton is telling the state that he’ll do anything to help conservative religious families who are more likely to have larger families—and he won’t do a damn thing to help the most vulnerable, most marginalized people in Texas.
The Handmaid's Tale is supposed to be a cautionary tale, not a blueprint.
"Neither would a married couple with only a measly three kids. "
Three shalt be the number thou shalt birth, and the number of the birthing shall be three. Four shalt thou not birth, nor either birth thou two, excepting that thou then proceed to three. Five is right out.
"You're not making Christianity better, you're just making sex worse!"