No Money for Public Schools from Largest Tax Bill in Tx History

"It is the largest tax bill in Texas history, and it doesn't give one penny to the public schools," said Rep. Jim Dunnam, D-Waco.

Not a single penny will go to public schools in Texas in HB3, a complete overhaul of the tax system in Texas which according to a description by the Houston Chronicle would "set up a new business franchise tax to replace another tax many companies avoided paying. Requires most medium and large companies to pay a tax on their gross receipts after deducting either the cost of goods or employee compensation."

This is the same bill which we discussed in an earlier blog which candidate for Texas Senator and radio show host, Dan Patrick, felt would lead to many businesses being shutdown.

Yes, the bill means a new source of money for the state, but it just replaces another, not giving any assistance to a school system in our state that is dramatically underfunded. The expanded business tax and an increase of the state cigarette tax (which was bounced back to the Ways and Means commitee for revisions), as well as parts of the budget surplus in an effort to cut school operating taxes by one-third over the next two years.

This is the state of our public education system. You have even the state's teacher association not caring one way or another about the bill due to it's lack of impact on the schools. They want money for raises, for better facilities, to buy supplies, but this bill did nothing thanks to the efforts of the GOP to shutdown any ammednments that would reform school, outside of the taxes.

Bills on the Floor

Figured I would post this explanation that the Austin Statesman had of all five bills that are hitting the floor today, which are the basis of this whole special session. These explanations are as good as they come and I hope you can understand what's going on in Austin with these explanations:

Tax cuts, Round One: House Bill 1 would dip into the surplus to give school districts enough money to reduce their property tax rates for maintenance and operations from $1.50 to $1.33 per $100 of assessed property value. Backers say the plan would provide enough of a cut to satisfy the Texas Supreme Court if no other piece of Perry's proposed tax overhaul passes. Critics call it the "get outta Dodge" plan.

Tax cuts, Round Two: House Bill 2 would use money from three tax increases to replace dollars lost if school property taxes are cut by one-third or more. The tax increases would be a new business tax, a higher cigarette tax and a change in sales-tax reporting on used cars.

Business tax: House Bill 3 would replace the corporate franchise tax with a new 'margins' tax, which would apply to more businesses. The tax would require businesses to pay 1 percent of their gross receipts, with deductions for either salaries and benefits or costs of goods sold. The rate would be 0.5 percent for retailers and wholesalers. General partnerships and sole proprietorships would be exempt, as would businesses with annual revenue of less than $300,000.

Car tax: House Bill 4 would require someone who buys a used car to pay sales taxes on at least 80 percent of the 'blue book' value of the car. The buyer could hire an independent appraiser to appeal that value.

Cigarette tax: House Bill 5 would raise the cigarette tax from 41 cents per pack to $1.46 over three years, starting with a 55-cent increase.

http://www.statesman.com/news/content/news/stories/local/04/24session.html

Bills on the Floor

Figured I would post this explanation that the Austin Statesman had of all five bills that are hitting the floor today, which are the basis of this whole special session. These explanations are as good as they come and I hope you can understand what's going on in Austin with these explanations:

Tax cuts, Round One: House Bill 1 would dip into the surplus to give school districts enough money to reduce their property tax rates for maintenance and operations from $1.50 to $1.33 per $100 of assessed property value. Backers say the plan would provide enough of a cut to satisfy the Texas Supreme Court if no other piece of Perry's proposed tax overhaul passes. Critics call it the "get outta Dodge" plan.

Tax cuts, Round Two: House Bill 2 would use money from three tax increases to replace dollars lost if school property taxes are cut by one-third or more. The tax increases would be a new business tax, a higher cigarette tax and a change in sales-tax reporting on used cars.

Business tax: House Bill 3 would replace the corporate franchise tax with a new 'margins' tax, which would apply to more businesses. The tax would require businesses to pay 1 percent of their gross receipts, with deductions for either salaries and benefits or costs of goods sold. The rate would be 0.5 percent for retailers and wholesalers. General partnerships and sole proprietorships would be exempt, as would businesses with annual revenue of less than $300,000.

Car tax: House Bill 4 would require someone who buys a used car to pay sales taxes on at least 80 percent of the 'blue book' value of the car. The buyer could hire an independent appraiser to appeal that value.

Cigarette tax: House Bill 5 would raise the cigarette tax from 41 cents per pack to $1.46 over three years, starting with a 55-cent increase.

http://www.statesman.com/news/content/news/stories/local/04/24session.html

Merging Texas Southern? Not A Current Option

More on Texas Southern this morning as it seems there is an apparent fear from those in the Houston black community about the chances that Texas Southern would be engulfed by the University of Houston system, which has their flagship campus a few blocks away from where Texas Southern is located.

Of those individuals speaking to the issue including Minister Robert Muhammad, who represents the Nation of Islam's southwest region. In a quote from the Houston Chronicle, Muhammad stated, "I think the merger issue is coming up, absolutely. It's difficult when you lose your independence. That's about to happen here." ("Firing at TSU revives anxiety", 4/23/06).

Back in 1999, Texas Southern was hurting in a bad way. This is about the time that current university President Prisiclla Slade, who is on the verge of being ousted from her position, came onboard and her predecessor was fired from his position as university President. There were lawmakers in Austin who were interested in merging Texas Southern into the University of Houston system. However, that effort was stopped, in large part due to fear of black lawmakers that the historically-black Texas Southern would have to close their doors.

Now with Slade having been put on a tight rope and pending her public hearing, probably removed from her position, the major concerns are that there is a lack of direction as it relates for the future of this institution. Prior to Slade, there were three Presidents over a period of six years. One individual resigned, the other two had their tenure ended by the board of regents (one had their contract go unrenewed after serving two years while the other was abruptly fired).

If Texas Southern wants to avoid issues in the future, they are going to have to make dramatic changes to their institution. Slade, who now finds herself under investigation by the District Attorney's office for failure to follow university and state policies, must go. The university then needs to work with the community and it's alumni base to find a leader that can provide stability for the institution. The "revolving door" that existed prior to Slade and is feared to occur after her, needs to be avoided.

The university needs to pull the money from somewhere to bring in a slew of new administrators that can bring this university foward. They must be able to hold the university accountable across the board as compliance has been an issue that has been ignored from the top to the bottom for years, only ruining the credibility of Texas Southern.

As a school with what amounts to "open enrollment", the graduation rates do raise an eye. Texas Southern needs to decide whether or not it wants to advance it's academic standards in an effort to keep enrollment locked down, so the university does not outgrow itself in a time that the amount of individuals partaking in higher education has increased. Texas Southern can not handle being too big for it's britches at a time the university's future is in question and from what I gather, right now, they need to evaluate where they want to head.

I do not think they will be consolidated in the near future as there's enough lawmakers in Austin who will fight for them not to be including Sen. Rodney Ellis (D-Houston) and Rep. Garnet Coleman (D-Houston). The situation that presented itself in 1999 is much different than today's, as individuals are saying the issue faced now is that of a personnel matter gone bad. It must be recognized however that with the wrong personnel leading the institution in the future, the issues that existed in 1999 can be relived and there is a chance that we can revist the merger discussion.

For now, Texas Southern will stand as is, an independent institution, one of just a few in the state of Texas.

Patrick 'Patronizes' Perry Plan

Well, isn't this something worth taking a look at?

Republican candidate for state Senator, Dan Patrick of Houston, who is going for Jon Lindsay's (R-Houston) current seat after the long-time state Senator resigns, came out blasting the GOP leaderhsip and Governor Rick Perry at the Americans For Prosperity-Texas Taxpayer Summit which is being held in Austin this week.

In his remarks at the summit, Patrick, who is a conservative radio show host, stated that Governor Perry's plan is bad for businesses, workers, shoppers and bad for Republicans.

All of this because of a new business tax that Perry suggests to replace the corporate pay tax and to help lower property taxes, which is at the base of the special session we are currently in.

Patrick feels that this new business tax will not help businesses, in fact impact 100,000 Texas businesses even leading some to shut their doors. The Governor's office believes only half of the 100,000 suggested by Patrick would feel the impact of this new business tax.

Instead of replacing one tax with another, Patrick drew a line in the sand, suggesting "using the state's $8.2 billion surplus to cut property taxes, give teachers a pay raise, pay bills left over from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita and boost security on the border" (Austin American Statesman, 4/22/06, "Taxpayer summit focuses on limiting government growth").

Patrick is confident that all of this can be done without raising a single new tax dollar. Well, we're going to have to wait and see considering the GOP leadership has fast-tracked the Perry plan by closing off debate on school finance reform to strictly "finance reform".

As Rep. Sylvester Turner (D-Houston) said on the floor of the Legislature yesterday, "it's almost like me sleeping with a woman tonight and telling her I'm going to marry her on tomorrow. Why shouldn't we get married before we sleep?"

There won't be any school finance reform nor teachers raises considering the GOP leadership continues to say that they'll get to those issues "tommorow" or as Rep. Pete Gallego (D-Alpine) said, "mañana is the busiest day of the week because the Legislature always says everything will be taken care of mañana and we never get there".

Rep Chisum's Attempt to Push the Issues to Mañana

Rep. Pete Gallego (D-Alpine) gave the best quote I've heard on the floor of the Legislature since the sexually-suggestive remarks from Rep. Al Edwards (D-Houston) we heard during the regular session. Gallego in discussing a calendars commitee rule adoption during this morning's session said, "Mañana is the busiest day of the week because the Legislature always says everything will be taken care of mañana and we never get there".

The rule adoption by Rep. Warren Chisum (R-Pampa) was a pretty big debate about getting through doing the minimum of which the Texas Supreme Court has asked. Representatives, namely from the Democratic side of the aisle were against this rule because it would not allow discussion/ammendments on various education-related issues, that while not officially on Governor Rick Perry's call list, could also be handled as an ammendment due to being tied into the financial appropriation issues of schools.

Chisum's bill, HB1, is referred to as the 'Get Out of Dodge' bill, which will speed up the session if passed, because it answers all of the Supreme Court's calls. However, does it answer it in the best way? According to education groups, it's just shows how the controlling party of the Legislature is not interested in handling many of the other issues that face education, such as increased teacher pay and equal funding of all pupils in the state of Texas. This rule effort was made to speed up the process in getting that bill to the floor and passed, effectively cutting off several of the methods related to floor debate/discussion.

By a count of 79-61, the Republicans were able to pass the rule adoption, which will speed up the process in doing the bare minimum asked by the Supreme Court, but still does not guarantee any answers to the calls of those affiliated with the educational community.

In layman's terms, a more long-term fix to the educational problems will be put off til mañana (whether it be two weeks or another few years) as the Republicans in Texas are more concerned about just getting out of Austin, not with the children of Texas.

In their description, the Texas State Teacher Association said on their web site that, "the House took up a series of rules on Friday morning to limit debate on the five tax bills that the House will take up on Monday. The rules were intended to limit pro-public education advocates from proposing amendments to the tax bills that would help public school employees and public education". That's probably as good an explanation as you'll get.

Of course, Republican Lt. Governor. David Dewhurst, who oversees the Senate, is on a thin-rope pertaining to his own campaign for Lt Governor this coming fall states that it's not enough for the Legislature to cut taxes without spending money to improve public education. As it stands now, the Republicans in the House are the ones pushing for a quick vote, but it may not fly as the Senate may put the brakes on that.

Protecting Schools from Gang Members

There's nothing new about gangs in our public schools. In a bill filed by Rep. Scott Hochberg (D-Houston) and moved into the Public Education commitee during today's session, individuals who are affiliated with gangs would be moved into a disciplinary alternative education program.

The question is, will the process in determining which individuals must go into this program be fair? According to the text of the bill, individuals would need to have exhibited or admitted to two of the following before they would meet the criteria:


(1) self-admission by the student of criminal street gang membership;
(2) identification of the student as a criminal street gang member by a reliable informant or other individual who is not a member of the board of trustees or the board's designee;
(3) a corroborated identification of the student as a criminal street gang member by an informant or other individual of unknown reliability;
(4) evidence that the student frequents a documented area of a criminal street gang, associates with known criminal street gang members, and uses criminal street gang dress, hand signals, tattoos, or symbols; or
(5) evidence that the student has been arrested or taken into custody with known criminal street gang members for an offense or conduct consistent with criminal street gang activity.

While I do feel that some of the aformentioned options are going to be tough to verify, the fact that Hochberg makes it where two of the provisions must be met is ideal and makes the process fairer.

The question remains on whether or not this will see support in the House and the Senate. In a way, you can liken this bill to some of those related to bullying bills that made their way into the 79th regular session last year. However of those bills, only one bill passed, that being HB 283 by Rep. Ruben Hope (R-Conroe) which allowed the transfer of a student who was bullied.

This time, the state would be taking preventative action, protecting potential victims and insuring that student safety is taken into account. Safety is a big issue facing our schools in this age of terrorism and in public schools in a post-Columbine society. Here's hoping the Legislature finds it in them to protect their students.

Rep Guillen's Attempt to Level Playing Field

While the typical resolutions are being passed in Austin during the special session, there is a lot of movement as everyone is jockeying for position as the real "fight" begins in the House early next week over the first of several major bills that will point this special session in whichever direction it may fall.

A constitutional ammendment, HJR 21 for those keeping score at home, filed by Rep. Ryan Guillen (D-San Diego), really got me interested. The official description is "a constitutional amendment requiring the state to provide for equitable funding for each student under the public school system."

One of the bigger arguments is that there is a great deal of disparity from district to district as it relates to spending per pupil. Spending on transportation, spending on teachers' salaries, spending on buildings, so forth and so on. A great deal of that is because of the tax-related issues faced in each district, namely the taxes made off of living in an area and how those translate to money for a given district.

What would this constitutional ammendment, if passed, do? I think it does a great deal towards improving the system by locking everyone, whether it as big a district as the Houston ISD or a district as small as many of these rural districts, into funding each student equally. The state, which does not properly fund education (and still may not after this special session regardless of what some may think) will be locked into helping out the districts to the point that they will have to meet the levels of funding required by the state.

The official text addition to the Texas Constitution proposed by Guillen reads, "suitable provision for the support and maintenance of an efficient system of public free schools, the Legislature shall provide for a system that results in the availability of an equitable amount of total state and local funding for maintenance, operations, and facilities costs to provide an equal educational opportunity for each student with comparable educational needs."

So, Rep. Guillen, for the most part, after initial review, covers all the bases that have led to inadequate school facilities and maintenance in order to provide a level "playing field" for all those seeking an education in our state. Hopefully, the members of the Legislature realizes the needs of all districts, not just those they represent, which may be richer or poorer than that of their colleagues. It's not about one district or even a handful, it is about all of them.

As it stands right now, a great deal of lobbyists and Republicans are backing Governor Rick Perry's plan "that would allow the wealthiest districts to raise 5 times as much money as about 750 districts could raise with the same tax rate" according to Wayne Pierece of the Equity Center, which represents property-poorer school districts (Austin American Statesman, "House tax-cut plan draws fire from education advocates", Apr 19 2006).

No one, whether it Democrats or Republicans can answer the call from the Texas Supreme Court this special session unless they find a way to make the "playing field" level and Guillen's constitutional ammendment proposal does more for that than most of the other options being presented. The Republican leadership needs to be open-minded in their debates to things they may not be comfortable with. A short-term solution, such as the one the Perry plan presents, may lead to a long-term mess that future Legislatures could be dealing with for sessions to come.

Of course, there's always the much opposed proposal from Rep. Eddie Rodriguez (D-Austin) to repeal the constitutional ammendment banning a state income tax and in turn, giving Texans one that helps fund our schools. However, this is Texas and one of the things most Texans like is being one of the few states without a state income tax.

Higher Ed Commish Discusses Where Texas is Heading

I was able to watch the Texas House commitee on Higher Education today. Higher Education as I have noted will be a big issue in 2007 as it relates to the state of Texas moving forward with dealing with the population growth in our state.

In 2000, to prepare to fix higher education, the state of Texas came out with the 'Closing the Gap' initiative which covers many issues from helping low-income families to improving the research dollars coming into Texas to getting students from first-generation families into college.

Raymund A. Paredes, the Commissioner of the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board was the featured speaker. Paredes said that Texas has a long way to go to reach parity with the rest of the states in the country in terms of percentage of students enrolled. Paredes said that the good news since Closing the Gaps came about in 2000 that there has been a 162,000 increase of students since. However, he did note that growth has become stagnant in the last year. The most shocking of which is slow growth in south Texas, where the population is booming, mostly with Hispanics.

The three fastest growing regions noted by Paredes are the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex, Houston/Galveston and South Texas. He stated the Higher Education Coordinating Board will be focusing on these three areas to attract college students with 85% of the growth in the next few years in higher education coming from these areas. Of note, Sam Houston State, which draws heavily from the Houston/Galveston area had the largest increase in an enrollment this past year.

Paredes feels the most crucial issue towards getting more individuals in higher education is the growth and stability of community colleges and technical colleges. The goal is getting the transfer-rates from these institutions to four-year institutions higher. Many schools are signing agreements with these two-year institutions, with once more, Sam Houston State being the trendsetter.

As we look towards preparing students for college, a great deal must be done at the high school level. Paredes states that colleges must participate in high school college-preparation courses in order to get students away from taking developmental classes during their years in college. The biggest step that Paredes sees is bringing the high school exit standards to that level of "college ready standards", an initiative which has been granted an executive order from the Governor with backing of the head of the Senate Education commitee, Sen. Florence Shapiro (R-Plano).

One of the questions asked to Paredes was about the amount of high schools credits and perhaps the state needs to require more credits of the high school students to prepare them better for college. Paredes said that the state needs to make for four years of math, English, science and social studies as well as stress that ability of students to comprehend a second language, so that our state can compete in our global community.

This was insight that shows that Texas has a great deal of different issues in making sure schools are uniformed and strong across the board so students are at equal footing upon entering their institution of higher education. Paredes feels that the access issue for higher education comes from this and not taking care of the "low hanging fruit" by giving them more financial aid.

Slade Voted Out as TSU President, Implications on Higher Ed

An interesting development occured today in Houston that while it may seem like a minimal impact on the state of higher education, it probably has a great deal of impact.

It is no secret that there is talk of system consolidation as it relates to higher education. There are probably a few more systems than need be in the state of Texas with several institutions that operates independent of any system. One of these schools is Texas Southern University which has had a fair share of issues in the past as it relates to staying independent.

About a decade ago, Texas Southern was at a really crucial point in their history. The university was truly not heading in the right direction and they brought in Priscilla Slade as their university president in an effort to turn around the fate of the school, which was very close to being engulfed into a university system.

Well, the Slade era came to an end today. The decision was pushed a few weeks earlier than expected and today, the Texas Southern University Board of Regents decided to dump Slade after a great deal of controversial spending of school money.

According to audit reports, over a seven-year period, Slade spent over $650,000 on various services (including maid service and car repairs) with university money. This all came to light a few months ago when the Slade's Memorial area home had it's lawn redesigned at the expense of the university in a spending "mistake" by the institution.

The chief financial officer, who himself had a criminal track record related to monetary issues, was put on paid leave as was Slade during this period of time. Well, the final verdict is in and Slade it out. Due to her contract, she gets one public hearing before it becomes official, but she definitely dug her own hole and buried herself in.

Interestingly enough, in the last few weeks as her hopes of remaining as President got slimmer and slimmer, Slade became very vocal. In the last few days especially, Slade contends that if it weren't for her administration, Texas Southern would have been engulfed into a system and not been an independent institution as it is now.

Perhaps the next President will reverse the good fortunes of Texas Southern?. You just never know now, do you? I wonder how this divides the faculty, students, administration and alums, but more importantly as it relates to this blog that we have here, how will it impact the state of Texas and could it have been another step closer to system consolidation in the state? Time will tell...