[speaker001:] are you are you a TIer Carla
[speaker002:] yeah I am
[speaker001:] oh and you work in the Sherman plant uh whereabouts
[speaker002:] uh-huh uh in the front end the wafer fab
[speaker001:] oh okay good deal oh I'm in Dallas I'm in uh in SC group QRA I I'm kind of a worldwide quality manager based here in Dallas uh mostly the offshore assembly sites
[speaker002:] where do you work uh-huh oh great oh wow
[speaker001:] except I'm fixing not to be a TIer after a week from today
[speaker002:] you going to Motorola
[speaker001:] no I'm going to Onum
[speaker002:] oh
[speaker001:] uh it's a subcontractor house they uh they builds in fact they build product for TI but it's been thirty two years so I mean I've I've served I've done my time
[speaker002:] oh oh yeah
[speaker001:] okay you ready to talk about taxes okay
[speaker002:] oh yeah were you happy with your return this year were you happy with your tax return this year
[speaker001:] huh what did you say no no
[speaker002:] was it negative
[speaker001:] okay I guess we're on the air now
[speaker002:] okay
[speaker001:] uh well what do you uh what do you think uh uh what's your biggest gripe do you think is it the proposed state income tax or the or the gigantic federal income tax we seem to be paying every year or what
[speaker002:] I think my biggest gripe is the gigantic federal income tax I came from a state that paid uh state taxes three years ago and that seemed to be relatively small compared to like the uh the tax you pay on sales sale items
[speaker001:] um-hum um-hum
[speaker002:] and um I don't know I think uh my biggest gripe is with federal
[speaker001:] what what state are you from Carla
[speaker002:] Indiana
[speaker001:] Indiana you had a state income tax there are you able to credit that against your federal income tax
[speaker002:] right yeah though it's a percentage you divide that well you uh how much you paid or something by your federal
[speaker001:] oh okay so you do get some credit but not the whole thing
[speaker002:] right
[speaker001:] okay because
[speaker002:] there's a lot of tax breaks for like you know a lot of things if you're involved in the state like uh giving to colleges and things like that they'll break you for
[speaker001:] oh I see okay what uh uh what generally what percent of your income is it
[speaker002:] um not even sure because I was a student so I didn't pay that much
[speaker001:] oh okay okay
[speaker002:] but uh
[speaker001:] because as as you know where uh there's there's uh a ugly rumors on the horizon out there that we may be faced with that here in Texas
[speaker002:] right and what percent would that be
[speaker001:] yeah uh I have no idea I I I uh I'm I'm originally from Massachusetts but they didn't have a state income tax when I worked when I lived there so I have uh no and I know they have one now uh and I have no idea I have no idea what it is
[speaker002:] uh-huh uh-huh
[speaker001:] but you know getting to the back getting back to the Federal income tax I remember during the Reagan administration I think it was the Tax Reform Act of nineteen eighty six or something like that when the taxes were reduced and it was made simpler and all that kind of stuff
[speaker002:] uh-huh uh-huh
[speaker001:] uh I don't believe it it's worse
[speaker002:] I know well you can't deduct for credit card interest that type of thing
[speaker001:] oh sure and I seem to have more of that every year and yeah the only thing that's left deductible is uh is mortgage uh interest basically
[speaker002:] yeah right right
[speaker001:] and would then and and that's significant and every once in a while they make noises like they're going to take that out and that would just kill the housing industry if they did
[speaker002:] oh yeah
[speaker001:] and and uh one other things that I only found out this year and uh uh I thought at one time I worked in Malaysia for TI and and had more money than I knew what to do with so I started making accelerated house payments and I said gee you know this would be great because I'll I'll have a lot of equity in my house
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] then when my children are old enough to go to college I'll get a equity loan which will increase my mortgage so I'll be able to get money to send them to college and then get the mortgage interest deduction part
[speaker002:] oh wow
[speaker001:] guess what
[speaker002:] what happened
[speaker001:] that that's not legal in Texas it's the only state in the country that it's not legal everybody else can do it but in Texas
[speaker002:] oh my gosh
[speaker001:] and and so I I got this three thousand foot five bedroom house that I've got almost paid off and have all kinds of equity in it and don't have and you know struggling to keep I've got two children in college and I'm going to have three by September
[speaker002:] oh man
[speaker001:] but but uh it it was just my fault not checking it up because I've heard of people doing it so I thought it was pretty good deal
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] so but the uh uh I I it just seems to me that the that the income tax is getting a bigger and bigger hunk of us every year
[speaker002:] oh yeah
[speaker001:] and and I'm not exactly sure what what we get in return I was listening to a talk show I don't know we ever get any talk shows from Dallas up there but I listened to David Gold this afternoon on KLIF and he was saying that in nineteen fifty four
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] Americans paid about one cent on the dollar in taxes
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] and now we're paying something like a little over fifty fifty cents when you consider federal income tax FICA tax sales tax and all the other things we get hit with
[speaker002:] fifty cents it's incredible
[speaker001:] and it is it is absolutely incredible and and and the mentality that you cure ills by throwing money at it and you throw and you raise the money to throw at it by raising taxes is just absolutely terrible
[speaker002:] uh
[speaker001:] uh is you know do you have children in school
[speaker002:] no I don't I just got married I don't have any children
[speaker001:] oh you know you just got married okay well you one of the worst things in Texas how long you been in Texas
[speaker002:] three years
[speaker001:] oh okay well you'll find out one of these days because you probably came from a state that's got a very decent public school system and you'll find out that in Texas we've got uh I think we rank fiftieth out of fifty states
[speaker002:] uh-huh yeah
[speaker001:] and and the way they keep proposing fixing that is to raise taxes spend more money
[speaker002:] I think what would cure that problem is to consolidate some of these schools and they wouldn't have so much money going to so many different schools
[speaker001:] yeah well that plus that fact that you look into the we've got some very good private schools here and more and more people are sending their children private schools and what you look in the private schools is they've got a higher proportion of people on the payroll that are teaching
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] than they do in the public schools and and my my son goes to a uh high school here in the Richardson school district which is one of the better ones in Texas
[speaker002:] yeah I've heard that
[speaker001:] uh and and and uh however my goodness they got an assistant principal for everything
[speaker002:] really
[speaker001:] and and and they've got uh I don't know what the ratio is but they've got a tremendously high ratio of administrative people to people that are actually out there teaching and it is sor t of like we do at TI
[speaker002:] sounds like TI is was getting ready to
[speaker001:] yeah yeah we get we get fat in those areas and yeah and and and and we got they they got a lot of overhead in those schools and rather than throw more money at it they got to figure out how to get get the most out of the people that they got
[speaker002:] yeah and then all your money goes to overhead uh-huh
[speaker001:] uh and and get them in the classroom plus uh I don't know it seems to me that that more so than when I went to school there are a lot of courses that aren't going allow first first of all they're not college prep courses and I don't think they're going help a person make a living they're just sort of things to get the kids their twenty one credits so they can graduate
[speaker002:] right yeah
[speaker001:] and and and all that and so I'm not I'm not overly pleased with that either but the uh uh the tax thing and I think our sales tax is uh uh somewhere around eight percent now isn't it
[speaker002:] right in Dallas it uh might be a little less here in Sherman
[speaker001:] and yeah I I think right here in Dallas we're paying about eight percent and you know uh I say I was initially from Massachusetts I've been here thirty two years but they used to call it Taxachusetts and uh I was there on business last weekend
[speaker002:] oh really
[speaker001:] and I I made a few purchases and I realized that as bad as their reputation is their sales tax only about five percent
[speaker002:] oh wow
[speaker001:] and I know there were several things that I bought that were something in the order of a dollar and I noticed it was about five cents added onto it plus it doesn't cut it as early you know you buy a ten cent candy in seven eleven here and you pay eleven cents
[speaker002:] uh-huh oh really
[speaker001:] for it and and I notice theirs doesn't cut in much below fifty cents I think so so the little items you pay what the price tag says
[speaker002:] well now if they propose this the if this you know state income tax goes through are they going to lower the sales tax
[speaker001:] I don't know I I don't I bet they're not I I'll absolutely bet they're not it it's interesting I wish I knew this question was coming up because I've only heard of it in bits and pieces but apparently there was a bill before the federal legislature today to uh lower social security tax but the other end of it they were going to raise income taxes
[speaker002:] oh man
[speaker001:] they were going to they were going to give with one hand and take away with the other and I I just heard bits and pieces on the radio today and I I hadn't uh uh I haven't heard that I haven't heard that much about it uh what what kind of a sales tax was in Indiana Indiana
[speaker002:] think it was like five and a half percent
[speaker001:] uh-huh okay yeah did you go to school there in Indiana Indiana University
[speaker002:] yeah Purdue no Purdue
[speaker001:] oh Purdue okay you were you were a Boilermaker huh yeah yeah you follow the girls uh basketball team boy we were we're tremendous uh girls basketball fans here and we saw them we saw them play in the Midwest Regionals down in Austin last year
[speaker002:] uh-huh oh yeah yeah oh great oh
[speaker001:] and we were Lady Longhorn fans naturally but we did see Purdue so we're aware uh that they've that they've got a very good program there
[speaker002:] yeah they well it's just been the last three or four years actually they had poor seasons before that but
[speaker001:] yeah yeah and I think they went further this year uh I I think they got into the second or third round of the of the play-off this year
[speaker002:] yeah they yeah they've been exciting to watch
[speaker001:] yeah and uh that's an what did you get get your degree in
[speaker002:] supervision
[speaker001:] okay supervision supervision that's an interesting degree uh what what sort of things does it entail
[speaker002:] yeah lot of theory um it's pretty it's pretty broad
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] uh took some engineering courses some math a lot of uh a lot of theory lot of practical like personal um problems and personnel problems and that type of thing
[speaker001:] are you are you actively in supervision now have have you taken some of the TI supervisory skill courses
[speaker002:] yeah yeah the The Boss Course
[speaker001:] yeah the Boss Course
[speaker002:] yeah that was a really good course
[speaker001:] yeah and and I was I was going to ask you what did you think of it relevant to some of