By J. Lyn Carl, GalleryWatch.com
Austin, TX –
In the House, the few members who actually showed up for the final day of the Second Called Session of the 79th Legislature gathered around the back microphone - almost giddy - to offer a motion that the House adjourn sine die. There were some who, tongue-in-cheek, shouted, "Work, work, work..." to scattered laughter as if they wanted the ill-fated, ill-attended session to continue.
It was a little more somber in the Senate, where member after member rose to begin the finger-pointing that is likely to continue through next year's election cycle.
Sen. Ken Armbrister (D-Victoria) lamented over, "How hard it is to grant tax relief on a tax we don't collect." He said to successfully craft a property tax relief plan, the legislature would "have to raise taxes on those that we do collect to give relief on a tax we don't collect." He said when his constituents ask what is taking the legislature so long to pass meaningful public school reform and ensure property tax relief, Armbrister said he asks them, "Which of the taxes I collect do you want me to increase so I can give you relief on a tax I don't collect?"
The Victoria Democrat also laid some of the blame for a school bill not passing directly at the feet of some public school superintendents. "Superintendents want money but they don't want us to tell them how to spend the money," he said. "There is no state agency that we micro-manage. We're policy makers. But it seems like with the public schools, we try to micromanage those."
"Public education in Texas is not a compromising issue," said Sen. Eddie Lucio (D-Brownsville). He said legislators should be "very focused and look directly into the needs and concerns and problems" of the state that related to public education and should "step up to the challenge, never stepping way but always moving forward" toward a goal of "doing what's right for our children, our teachers and our state."
Lucio pointed out that children are the state's future and that the state should "never, ever" have to compromise the most important issue for them - public education.
Armbrister agreed that public education is not a compromise situation. He said that while some across the state were calling legislators "clowns" and "idiots" who didn't know what they were doing, lawmakers were working "tirelessly to get the job done." He wondered why those who criticized never showed up for hearings, never wrote letters to their representatives in the legislature. "I've got 98 school districts (in his Senatorial district)," he said, "and I heard from five."
While school officials want more money, said Armbrister, they don't want Texas citizens or the legislature to expect anything in return. "They don't want accountability," he said.
"The hardest thing in the world is to pass legislation affecting somebody's child," said Armbrister. While the legislature faced an issue that affected children, teachers and dollars and cents, he noted, "It does take time to get it right."
While the legislature was not able to pass school reform and property tax relief legislation, Armbrister said it "doesn't mean people haven't tried to do their best.
"We are going to get it done. But it just takes time to get it right."
Armbrister said one of the most frustrating aspects of the session was that any funding mechanism discussed generally was being worked against by business groups. He said when the legislature addresses this issue again, "They are going to have to start paying their fair share." He said every Texan, and every entity, "has an obligation."
Calling school finance "a melting pot of all of the toughest issues and philosophical differences in the state," Sen. Robert Duncan (R-Lubbock) said such issues are not the kinds that lend themselves to easy solutions.
Duncan said the negotiations over school finance issues in the past eight months have been serious and difficult.
"We've been close on several occasions. But we're still not there yet." He said before a school finance bill can be implemented, there must be a restructuring and modernization of the state's tax structure. He said because Texans are not ready to consider a state income tax, a broad-based business tax is the next best choice, and said the legislature is going to have to have the "courage to get that done."
Duncan predicted that would stop the logjam that has slowed a solution to the school finance problem. "Perhaps the courts will give us the guidance, perhaps they won't," he said of the upcoming appeal decision by the Texas Supreme Court as to whether the state's public school finance system in constitutional. "It is not our job to wait on the courts," he said, but instead to tackle it "without being told to do so by another branch of government."
While disappointed no legislation was passed, Duncan said he was not disappointed in the effort.