The fourth-called special session of the 78th Legislature began with a whimper, as the House and Senate adjourned after a pro forma opening and a suspension of the rules so they can vamoose until next week. In a 30-day session, that might sound like cutting it close already, but it’s apparent that there remains “no consensus” on what to do about public school finance and property taxes – or even which project is the priority – so the leaderships will spin their internal wheels for a few days to see what they can come up with. On Monday, Speaker Tom Craddick declared, “Our agenda for the next week to 10 days is for the House Select Committee on Public School Finance to hold hearings to consider the education funding plans that are filed, including Governor Perry’s.” That’s not exactly a ringing endorsement – Craddick later said that rather than push a particular plan, he’ll just “let the process work.” As the process opened, the governor was reduced to carrying his own bill before the House Select Committee on Public School Finance – not a humiliation we recall ever imposed on the prior occupant of the mansion. Rep. Kent Grusendorf, R-Arlington, filed a bill based on the governor’s proposals, but made it clear that it was simply a “shell” that would likely be sucked dry and rewritten before it ever escapes committee. Dallas Democrat Steve Wolens attempted to clarify matters briefly on the House floor Tuesday, but got nowhere with Craddick or Appropriations Chair Talmadge Heflin before the House quickly adjourned.
Democrats were quick to raise eyebrows – House Dem caucus chair, Waco’s Jim Dunnam sniped, “What is obvious is that the governor’s plan is really just out there as a straw man to divert attention from the real plan being drawn in private. Everyone knows the governor’s plan is DOA, and it is unsettling to think that the real plan by leadership is already drafted in principle and is just being held back so that public input will be minimized.” Dunnam may be giving more credit than is due, but right now his guess is as good as any.
But who needs Democrats, when Carole Keeton Strayhorn is on the warpath? The take-no-prisoners comptroller has been blasting away at Gov. Rick Perry for weeks on health and human services and on Monday delivered both her formal revenue estimate (improved) and her number-crunchers’ official judgment of the Perry Educational Excellence and Property Tax Relief plan (hereafter known as “EEPers!”). According to Strayhorn’s budget letter, “during its first five years alone, the plan would accumulate an unfunded and swelling deficit of more than $10 billion even as it produces zero additional property tax rate cuts beyond the amounts promised in the very first year.” Later that day, Strayhorn released an itemized analysis that purports to demonstrate that EEPers! neither funds schools, cuts taxes, nor fulfills any of the other financial promises made by the governor. And Strayhorn doesn’t flinch from adding insult to injury: Perry’s plan, she wrote, “replaces Robin Hood with Robbin’ Everybody. Takes taxpayers out for separate muggings: Split-roll becomes ‘constitutionally linked tax system’ that rewards rich, mansion districts.”
The governor declined to take on Strayhorn directly, telling the committee only that if others think they have a better idea, they should offer it. But his spokeswoman Kathy Walt returned sharp fire, first questioning Strayhorn’s arithmetic – “The comptroller’s last major revenue estimate was off by a factor of 100 percent,” (fall to January 2003, touché!) – and then her motives. “Throwing rocks is easy,” said Walt, “but where are the comptroller’s constructive suggestions? … The governor believes legislators need and want stability in revenue estimates, not wildly unstable, consistently unreliable, and politically motivated number-crunching.”
Since all we have thus far are competing memos, it’s quite impossible to tell yet whose numbers are more reliable – that was being loudly wrestled out in staff presentations before the committees this week, and may be more comprehensible in due course. But it’s worth noting that Perry’s plan repeats the canard that Texas already spends $10,400 per student – a number nobody else will attest – and is therefore third nationwide in overall school spending. If that’s true, why call a special session at all?
It’s also very early for the 2006 GOP gubernatorial primary, but Perry and Strayhorn both seem to be jockeying for the prospect more seriously every day. Her revenue estimate was not the only Strayhorn letter released this week. After her campaign treasurer, venerable Republican George Strake, resigned in dismay over her attacks on Perry, Strayhorn’s handwritten personal letter to Strake – releasing him from his “uncomfortable position” – circulated at the Capitol. “The Governor does not believe in healthy debate,” wrote Strayhorn, “and anyone who does not take his precise position on every issue is ‘taken to the woodshed,’ threatened, etc.” Strayhorn blames Perry for the rancor now notorious between them, and specifically charges his office with “privately spreading rumors about me and my staff spreading rumors (absolutely not true)” (emphasis in original).
It’s been said real life is just like high school, only more so. At the Texas Capitol, that’s a truism.
This article appears in April 23 • 2004.
