Friday, July 15, 2005

School Finance Crisis: The Lege is failing again; court must be enforcer

DallasNews.com | News for Dallas, Texas | Opinion: Editorials

" The Legislature

This is it? Two years of work on school finance, three legislative sessions devoted to the subject, and all the good citizens of Texans are likely to get from their governor and legislators are higher sales taxes and diddly property tax relief?

Apparently so. By all estimations, Austin's settling in on a plan that'll hit Texans with the highest sales taxes in the nation and substantially less than a 15 percent cut in their school property tax rates. Even worse, the plan will leave schools vastly underfunded. If you call this progress, we've got some beachfront property in Waco to sell you.

To be fair, legislators aren't the only culprits. Gov. Rick Perry is responsible as well, declining to take the lead in the special session to secure passage of a new business tax to help fund schools.

Parts of the Texas business community are to blame, too. While some corporations and firms testified in favor of various business tax options to help schools, others took the small view and worried only about how a new tax would affect their bottom line. You have to wonder where they plan to get smart workers if Texas doesn't adequately fund its schools. "

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