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May 03, 2005
Clouding the Sunny Side of Life
As we wrote just a few days ago, the Texas Senate GOP leadership's crowing about its school finance plan seemed, well, just a bit premature.
Cutting taxes and solving the public school finance crisis -- wow! It was bold, a revelation, a new paradigm for government management of revenue and spending! Yeah right.
As Clay Robison points out in today's Houston Chronicle, Senate GOP leaders have encountered a small speed bump on the road to having their cake and eating it too -- actually paying for their plan.
Yesterday Senate GOP leaders unveiled their version of HB3 -- the tax bill. In addition to raising the sales tax and creating a statewide property tax (in exchange for cutting local rates), the Senate has proposed a "broad-based business tax."
Well, it turns out some folks aren't too happy about this plan -- namely House Speaker Tom Craddick and businesses. A small problem, considering the two legislative bodies have only until the end of the month to work out a compromise in conference committee. Assuming they can, Governor Perry also must sign it -- hardly a guarantee.
Maybe the Lege should get back to dealing with the real crises facing the State, like stopping gay foster parenting and rampant illegal voting, renaming highways and making extra super-duper sure there's no gay marriage. After all, three laws just may not be enough.
This little stuff, like the tax bill, will work itself out.
Posted by houtopia at May 3, 2005 09:05 AM