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April 30, 2005
The Sunny Side of Life
Houtopia recalls attending a legislative session preview in Houston several months ago, with Lt. Governor David Dewhurst as the keynote speaker. Governor Dewhurst talked warmly of the collegiality and bipartisanship that characterizes the Texas Senate -- perhaps he simply couldn't recall that minor distraction in 2003 known as redistricting, which sent Senate Democrats to Albuquerque, and shut the body down for weeks -- but we'll allow that he may have been choosing to stay on the sunny side of life.
At this forum, Mr. Dewhurst took time to compliment Democratic and Republican colleagues in attendance -- a magnanimous gesture in keeping with the love-fest atmosphere of the event. It was, however, when Governor Dewhurst sunnily declared that the State would be able to both cut property taxes by a third and fund all needed programs, that we lost that loving feeling, and we suspect, so did some others in the audience.
Staying positive is one thing, but we'd like to think our elected officials at least pretend to live in the real world. The notion that property taxes could be lopped off by a third, and the rather glaring public school finance shortfall (what's a few billion among friends?) would just be solved, with absolutely no discussion of how said revenue would be made up, struck us as laughable on its face. Quorum Report's Harvey Kronberg and the Dallas Morning News' Christy Hoppe said as much on a panel after the Governor's departure.
Fast forward to today's Houston Chronicle. Janet Elliott has the scoop on the Senate's school finance plan. Those GOP fiscal hawks (see: U.S. federal budget) have taken the "responsible" route, and settled for a mere 27% property tax cut, to be phased in over a couple of years. The Senate committee also generously approved $3 billion in new school financing, including a raise for teachers. Problem solved -- maybe Governor Dewhurst was right all along.
Just a couple of minor details kill a bit of our bipartisan buzz:
The tax bill -- it seems the Senate is still "struggling" with how these property tax cuts and added school funding will actually be paid for, but what's the big deal with that?
Reconciling with the House version -- the House actually approved the whole one-third property tax cut, but resolving that 6% difference should be no problem, right? And, the House already has its tax bill -- the Republican State Comptroller says it's about $4 billion short of reality, but she's just a liberal whiner anyway.
The Democrats -- oh yeah, none of them on the Senate committee actually voted for the GOP plan -- details, details. Everyone knows the Senate is unified, just like Gov. Dewhurst says, whether it's on taxes, school finance, or gay marriage.
The Governor -- we're sure he'll sign whatever they come up with, right? OK, we won't worry about that.
After seeing that the Republican leadership in the Texas Senate has these problems in hand, we can all breathe a little easier. Isn't it nice to stay on the sunny side of life?
Posted by houtopia at April 30, 2005 10:04 AM