Why Rick Perry Deserves Defeat in 2006

School tax plan appears doomed

For the third time in as many years, Texas lawmakers appear to have failed to come up with a new way to pay for public education.

"I don't see how it's not dead," Sen. Steve Ogden, R-Bryan, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, said Saturday.

The controversy over how to pay for public schools in a way that meets the demands of the state constitution now heads to the Texas Supreme Court while state officials try to assess the impact their inaction will have on next year's elections.

Gov. Rick Perry and legislative leaders continued frantic backroom negotiations to try to salvage something from the legislation late Saturday and insisted they were making progress.

But the lawmakers missed a crucial midnight deadline to print copies of legislation to be voted on before they adjourn Monday. Broad, bipartisan support would be required to waive that deadline ? a high hurdle for such an emotionally-charged issue.

The Legislature's apparent failure had become became clear hours earlier when House and Senate negotiators could not agree on how to distribute state money to school districts or whether consumers or businesses should pay the bulk of new taxes to lower school property taxes.

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In 2003, the Senate unanimously passed a plan to lower property taxes and raise other taxes as a way to pay for schools. But the plan died in the House.

Last year, lawmakers failed during a 30-day special session to reform the state's school finance system.

This year, the House and Senate passed their own plans to reform the system but could not agree on a compromise.

Talks Saturday boiled down to a test of will between House Speaker Tom Craddick, R-Midland, and Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst. Craddick rarely gives an inch in negotiations, while the more flexible lieutenant governor refused to give ground the way he has in prior battles.

Sorry, Rick. Nobody left to blame this fiasco on. You benefitted mightily from redistricting 1.0 (the legal kind) and redistricting 2.0 (the soon-to-be illegal kind). The failure increasingly comes down to the fact that you suck as a leader. Just as nobody agreed with your biennial budget of $0, nobody took your half-assed redistricting of only one-fifth of the state, nobody went along with you on increased gambling, there's growing distaste for your new highway system, and now this ... the single biggest issue confronting the state, and you've got nothing to show by election time.

Then again, the GOP's been rather big on rewarding failure lately. So hope may yet spring eternal for Team Perry.