State Government

In our last episode, an unforeseen problem in the massive school finance bill was threatening several bond issues from Texas school districts and prompting several others to calculate how much they’d have to raise their taxes to pay for facilities they previously thought would be paid for with state money. If this was the “Perils of Pauline,” we’re to the part where the good guys show up and pull her off the tracks before the train can run her down.

When they were cobbling together the $3.8 billion education bill in the last days and hours of the legislative session, lawmakers bollixed up state funding for new and old school district debt, jeopardizing some future construction and possibly forcing some districts to raise property taxes to cover the costs of construction that has already been completed or that is underway.

Gov. George W. Bush is not running for president, at least not until the exploration is complete.

Someone asked this week whether we had been able to find a defining moment of the legislative session. Our candidate: It happened on March 2, Texas Independence Day, on the lawn of the Governor’s Mansion, when Gov. George W. Bush said officially that he’s pondering a presidential run.

At the end of the last legislative session, people were complaining about the ability of the most conservative House members to disrupt that chamber’s business. This session, the liberals have been in charge of the grenades, and they have found their own place as a spoiler in a system that historically likes to run on compromise and negotiation. As the Republicans have improved their ability to hold together a bloc of votes, the Democrats have slipped.

Democrats of both the native and national varieties (and Republicans with presidential ambitions) have been chipping away at Gov. George W. Bush for what they see as his failure to stake out a leadership position on the hate crime bill that got spiked by the Texas Senate. And their next line of argument is that Bush isn’t tuned into anything at all, at least not to anything that’s of concern to the Texas Legislature. That ain’t necessarily so.

If Carole Keeton Rylander had never said anything about money back at the beginning of the session, the state would be about where it is today in terms of the amount of money available for government spending and tax cuts.

We begin with an “if”: What happens if Gov. George W. Bush moves from the white mansion at 11th and Colorado in Austin to the larger digs at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C.? Well, unless he refuses to take the office, Lt. Gov. Rick Perry would move into the governor’s office.

We’re not sure where the rumor of a special session started, but we checked our Dear Diary entries for the last couple of legislative sessions, and the rumor is right on time. Time is running out, people are starting to worry about their legislation, and some desperate souls are starting to talk about the need for a special session if such-and-such isn’t dealt with during regulation play.

If you think the governor is getting hammered on his plans for the state’s huge financial surplus, you’re arguably right. But if you think he has a big political stake in the details of teacher pay and taxes, you’re probably wrong. All that matters in the end is the big picture.