The Right State

My home state of Texas is facing a court ordered deadline of June 1 to retool school funding due to the education funding system being ruled unconstitutional.  Texas is one of 20 states using property taxes to fund public schools.  Unless the deadline is met, most of the school districts in Texas will shut down due to lack of funds.  This is not something new.  The state legislature has been wrestling with funding schools since 1989.  KWTX.com has the details on the continuing crisis.

1989: The Texas Supreme Court throws out the state’s school funding law after finding “glaring disparities” between rich and poor school districts.

1993: Days before a court-imposed deadline threatened to close Texas schools, the Legislature forces school districts in areas with healthy property values to share their tax collections with poorer districts as a way to fund schools.

1995: The Texas Supreme Court upholds the share-the-wealth system, nicknamed “Robin Hood.”

2003: Attorneys for property-wealthy school districts argue before the Texas Supreme Court that the school funding plan is inefficient and has created an illegal statewide property tax after many districts pushed collections to the legal limit.

April 20, 2004: The Legislature meets in a special session called by Republican Governor Rick Perry to address school finance. The session ends two days early when lawmakers fail to pass a new plan.

September 15, 2004: After a trial brought by 300 districts –both rich and poor — a judge rules the education funding system unconstitutional and inefficient. He orders the state to halt school spending in October 2005 if problems aren’t fixed. Following the judge’s written ruling in late November, the state appeals to the Texas Supreme Court.

January 11, 2005: Legislature convenes in regular session and Perry declares education funding an emergency. Lawmakers fail to pass a new system before session expires May 30.

June 18, 2005: Perry vetoes $35 billion in education spending, forcing lawmakers into 30-day special session beginning June 21.

July 6, 2005: Attorneys for hundreds of school districts tell Texas Supreme Court justices in oral arguments that the state has abdicated its obligation to educate its children. State lawyers argue that state funding meets the minimum constitutional requirements. The court does not immediately rule.

July 20, 2005: Special session ends at midnight without passage of a new plan. Perry calls lawmakers back for another 30-day special session beginning the next day.

July 26, 2005: Republicans and Democrats in the Texas House vote down its own school funding bill. House Speaker Tom Craddick blames school superintendents for persuading lawmakers to oppose the legislation.

Aug. 19, 2005: The 30-day special session ends without a school finance solution.

Nov. 22, 2005: The Texas Supreme Court rules that local property taxes for school funding amount to an unconstitutional statewide tax and gives the state until June1 to fix the system.

Since then the state legislature has met during its regular session which meets every two years and it has gone through three special sessions without resolving the school funding issue.

As far as I can determine, this will be the second special session of the year and the fifth since 2004.  Cron.com is reporting that Governor Rick Perry will call for the next special session to start April 17^th.

“This special session provides legislators of both parties a rare opportunity to significantly reduce property taxes, make substantial reforms to the franchise tax so it is fairer and broader, and ensure our schools have a reliable and constitutional stream of revenue,” Perry said.

As a property owner I am more than ready for some tax relief.  What I need now is for this lame-duck session of the Texas Legislature to gets its act together to do what is right for Texas.  The aptly named ‘Robin Hood’ scheme was a poorly concocted last minute plan to forestall the judicial branch creating their own funding plan.  Now is the time to correct the mistakes of the past and give the property owners some relief.  There are a number of ways to accomplish this including buying down property taxes with a $4 billion surplus Texas has in its general revenue.  The only problem with this plan is that it is a temporary measure and it will only buy down the tax rate a quarter from $1.50 per $100 value to $1.25.

If the legislature really wanted to save some money they should cut some of the fat out of the school system.  School districts are constantly whining that they do not have enough to fund their schools while at the same time they have sky-rocketing administrative costs.  Teachers are not getting raises, schools are not hiring more teachers, but the districts are hiring more and more administrative people.  When my funds run short I cut my spending.  When the schools funds run short they whine to the state legislature.  So far it has worked, so why should they stop?

Tags: Texas //