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1.04.2005
Dewhurst Calls Meetings with Senators on School Finance
Strategy for Session Speculation Centers on Possible Package
for Voters that Could Include Shift to Gross Receipts Taxes
By Mike Hailey
Capitol Inside Editor
Lieutenant Governor David Dewhurst is expected to start meeting
with state senators on an individual basis this week in an
attempt to determine what it will take to marshal a unified
show of support in the Senate this year on the critical issue
of school finance.
Dewhurst's meetings with senators come at a time when lawmakers
on both sides of the Texas Capitol appear divided on whether
to pass a sweeping school finance bill or to make changes
incrementally in a way that would keep the public schools
in business without the need for a major shift or increase
in state taxes. There's been speculation that the Senate might
toy with the idea of taking the lead on school finance in
the regular session with a potential plan that could involve
a single constitutional amendment that senators could act
on ostensibly without having to wait for a tax bill to originate
in the House.
One potential scenario that's reportedly under discussion
would rely on an overhaul of the state's business tax system
with the imposition of a minimum gross receipts tax that would
be levied on businesses across the board as a major source
for revenues that could be used to reduce local property taxes
and fund schools. Whether a plan proposes taxes on gross receipts
or business activity, there's a feeling among some in the
Capitol's east wing that members might find it more difficult
to pick apart a school finance plan if a vote against certain
revenue measures would sink the entire proposal. Under such
a scenario, senators might opt to consider video lottery gambling
as a source of education revenue in a separate measure apart
from an all-encompassing school finance package that would
be ultimately approved or rejected by Texas voters.
The timing of the meetings offer Dewhurst an opportunity to
exercise some of the powers he holds as the Senate's presiding
officer as leverage with members who might be reluctant to
get on board a school finance and tax program early in the
140-day regular session. The lieutenant governor, for example,
will be announcing his choices for committee leadership posts
at some point fairly soon after the session convenes on Tuesday
next week. With that thought in mind, senators might be less
inclined to resist appeals for support for a particular proposal
that the lieutenant governor might favor and hope to have
on a fast track when the session opens for business next week.
Dewhurst associates say the options are still open and that
the Republican lieutenant governor is simply trying to ensure
that the lines of communication are open and a dialogue is
under way on the state's most pressing issue by the time the
curtain goes up on the 79th regular session in seven days.
They dismiss any notion that Dewhurst might be planning to
play political hardball in the meetings with senators by holding
committee appointments or other potential incentives over
their head to leverage support for whatever his preferred
proposal may be.
The biennial gathering of legislators at the Capitol this
year will be Dewhurst's second regular session since winning
the job as the Senate's presiding officer in 2002. But it
won't be the first time he's initiated talks with individual
senators before gaveling them into a regular session. Dewhurst
won widespread praise two years ago after meeting with each
of the Senate's 31 members before the Legislature convened
and using the good relations that were established as a foundation
for a session in which the Senate was united for the most
part on major issues such as homeowners insurance reform,
medical malpractice liability limitations and, above all,
school finance. The upper chamber's finest moment of 2003
arguably came when all 31 members banded together to approve
a comprehensive school finance bill on which every single
senator was listed as a co-sponsor. Senators were able to
attach their plan as a substitute to a stopgap education finance
bill that the House sent over in order to comply with the
constitutional provision requiring tax bills to be heard first
in the House.
But Speaker Tom Craddick and House leaders refused to consider
the Senate's proposal amid concerns that senators had rushed
into it after being swept up in the fanfare over the speed
and ease in which they were able to put together and pass
a major school finance plan. House leaders, with encouragement
from Governor Rick Perry, decided that it would be wiser to
hold off on a school finance plan in order to give a select
committee time to further investigate the potential options
for replacing a system that a state district judge would end
up declaring to be unconstitutional last year. Senators, as
a result, were left having to defend votes for higher taxes
while members in both chambers had to go back to square one
on the issue of school funding.
Senators appeared more united on school finance than House
members during a special session that Perry called last spring.
But when the House sent over a school tax plan that had been
scaled back dramatically during the floor debate, senators
didn't like the idea of having to rebuild the measure with
additional votes for higher taxes then face the prospect of
having the measure fail in the House once again. The Senate
didn't vote on the House plan before the special session ended
- and District Judge John Dietz turned up the pressure with
a September ruling that found the current system in violation
of the state's constitution. Dietz told the state to fix the
problems by the fall semester or face the prospect of having
the schools closed.
Dewhurst is among those legislators who believe that the Legislature
should overhaul the school finance system in a single major
sweep. House and Senate education leaders such as State Rep.
Kent Grusendorf of Arlington and State Senator Florence Shapiro
of Plano - and Craddick have also indicated support for a
comprehensive approach toward resolving the issue.
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