State Government

Democratic leaders in the House say they’re against gambling as a way to finance public education or to fill holes that might appear in the state budget. They said they’ll oppose it during the current legislative session.

A week after the Texas House passed the largest tax bill it has ever considered — a measure intended to replace some local school property taxes with new state taxes — Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn stunned lawmakers by saying the bill spends three dollars for every two it raises.

Tax bills are difficult to pass, and it never goes smoothly. Gov. Bill Clements signed a tax bill in 1987 that still holds the state record, and he did it over the objections of some of his fellow Republicans. In 1991, the political ambitions of then Ways & Means Chairman James Hury ended on the floor of the House when his fellow Democrats disassembled a multi-billion tax bill and left it to Lt. Gov. Bob Bullock to put Humpty Dumpty back together again. That one finally got passed, and is the second-place finisher on the state’s all-time list.

The specifics keep moving around, but House management still wants to see the tax and school finance bills on the floor for debate by March 7 or 8. That means the committees in control must move the bills next week.

U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison hasn’t yet said what she’s running for next year, but there might be a hint in the hiring.

Picture this day in the Texas House: A major education overhaul, a new business tax (and several other taxes) to pay for it, a vote on property appraisal caps, another on a statewide property tax, and a vote on expanding gaming in Texas to allow high-tech slot machines and dog and horse tracks.

Everybody in School Finance Land seems to agree the state needs a new “broad-based business tax” to help buy down local property taxes. You can hear those four words from Gov. Rick Perry, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, and from House Speaker Tom Craddick. You’ll hear them a lot more over the next six months.

This is the last issue of Texas Weekly for 2004. We’re taking two weeks off and will return in the first week of January, in time for the government and political fun to begin all over again. Thanks for your support this year: We appreciate your business and wish you a wonderful holiday season.

A kind of inertia surfaces in the parlor speculation of political people that follows every big election. Top-of-the-ballot stuff is so well trodden that you can talk about whether She will challenge Him and everybody in Texas knows what you’re babbling about. But while most eyes are focused on two of the state’s top officeholders, other ambitions are being stoked. No one has declared for anything yet — except for Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson and Gov. Rick Perry, the only two statewides who say they’ll definitely seek reelection — but trial balloons fill the sky.

Three Republicans who apparently lost on Election Day are officially questioning the results, contending the numbers at the bottom of the ledgers in those contests don’t reflect the legal votes. A fourth who was considering a challenge decided to let it rest.