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512-463-4070
1-800-531-5441 Fax 512-475-0345 www.window.state.tx.us |
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For Immediate Release:
Thursday, December 7, 2006 |
Contact: Carole Keeton Strayhorn 512-462-4444 or Mark Sanders 512-497-2643 |
Strayhorn Reports Undocumented Immigrants Add $17.7 Billion To Gross State Product
(Austin)--Texas Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn today released her special report that shows undocumented immigrants in Texas in fiscal year 2005 added $17.7 billion to the gross state product and produced $1.58 billion in state revenues.
“This is an historic report,” Strayhorn said. “It is the first time any state has done a comprehensive financial analysis of the impact of undocumented immigrants on a state’s budget and economy, looking at gross state product, revenues generated, taxes paid and the cost of state services.
“The absence of the estimated 1.4 million undocumented immigrants in Texas in fiscal 2005 would have been a loss to our gross state product of $17.7 billion. Undocumented immigrants produced $1.58 billion in state revenues, which exceeded the $1.16 billion in state services they received.
“However, local governments bore the burden of $1.44 billion in uncompensated health care costs and local law enforcement costs not paid for by the state,” Strayhorn said. “While state revenues exceed state expenditures for undocumented immigrants by more than an estimated $420 million, local governments experience the opposite, with the estimated difference being more than $920 million for 2005.”
Strayhorn’s special report, Undocumented Immigrants in Texas: A Financial Analysis of the Impact to the State Budget and Economy, estimated undocumented immigrants paid $1.58 billion in state fees and taxes, and an additional $513 million in local taxes in fiscal year 2005.
Because Texas does not have a state income tax and relies on sales tax and other consumption taxes, undocumented immigrants in Texas pay a higher portion of state revenues than in other states.
Comptroller Strayhorn’s report also estimated the state spent $957 million on K through 12 education for undocumented students during the 2004-05 school year; $11.2 million for higher education for undocumented students, classified as Texas residents and thus paid in-state tuition during the 2004-05 school year; $58 million for health care services for undocumented immigrants in FY 2005; and $130.6 million on incarceration for undocumented immigrants in FY 2006.
The full report is available at www.window.state.tx.us.
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