Voice in the Wilderness

HB 3 Causes Conservative Consternation

HB 3 and its companion bill, HB 2, have been passed through the House, to much fanfare by House Republicans.

To be fair, there are some savory morsels nestled within these bills

• They tighten the franchise tax loophole so that it will be more consistently applied (currently 83% of Texas businesses do not pay any franchise tax)
• They have some provision for more financial transparency on the part of the local ISD’s
• They may significantly reduce local property taxes

But the Republicans have taken this Kellogg Pop Tart and tried to make Blackberry Cobbler from the Salt Lick BBQ.

Rep. Dan Flynn circulated this letter, signed by 37 House Republicans, extolling the virtues of HB 3. While making political hay of the aforementioned benefits, it tersely dismisses the legitimate claim that the compensation tax provision could prove to be a backdoor income tax. Furthermore, talking points memos on HB 2 and HB 3 being circulated to the House Republican Caucus by Rep. Ruben Hope bragged about

• Expanding and raising the consumption tax
• Increasing education funding (AKA “educrat spending authority”) 38% in the last 6 years though there is no evidence enrollment has increased proportionally
• “Record funding increases of more than $3 billion on top of $1.2 billion for enrollment growth” (emphasis added)

These are Texas Republicans?

The HB 3 memo hilariously cites the Comptroller’s “Dynamic Fiscal Note”, which lists a bevy of make-believe economic benefits through 2015. There is no discussion though, of the potential, negative effects of HB 3 that might temper this heady enthusiasm.

The R’s neglect to mention that this reallocation of taxes have made them less visible and may open the door for more taxing entities to get their hands on them as well as stealth increases. The only saving grace of the local property tax model is that voters fork over a big check before year end to get the federal income tax deduction for that tax year. Thus, most residential property owners pay this big tax bill in December (Merry freakin' Christmas!) and know it takes a big chunk out of their pocketbooks and they complain big time.

These new, reallocation schemes ape the feds’ diabolical method of “boiling the frog slowly” by hiding big taxes from voters in small, barely visible increments. With local and state taxing authorities slowly digging more gold out of businesses’ bank accounts, the economic effects might not be as stellar as predicted. Did the Comptroller’s Fiscal Note count on that dynamic?

It is also unclear what protections there are for local taxpayers against local taxing entities raiding this newfound windfall for all sorts of gaseous public projects.

Conservative organizations have given HB 3 an understandably chilly reception. The Young Conservatives of Texas issued an acidic jeremiad against Speaker Craddick, chiding him for semantic gaming around the “payroll tax” as well as letting opposing Dems look fiscally responsible and pose as budget hawks in 2006. The Texas Public Policy Foundation, while nicer to the people involved, similarly exposed the economic and political fallout passage of HB 3 would entail. Another YCTer seems to sum up the situation accurately:

“It seems our timid legislature is caught in the middle between a wasteful & bloated education system demanding an ever increasing portion of the state budget and the Texas citizenry & business community who are left with the bill. Who will they grow the temerity to stand up to and demand more from?”

Admittedly, I have not followed the school finance debate all that closely. But it seemed to me that most of the media weeping, lobbyist wailing and pol gnashing of teeth revolved around revenue questions: Will the funding be adequate, equal, etc?

Certainly, these topics are worth discussion. However, the Republicans' rosy sound bites have said nary a word about the other side of the equation, spending. Where is the money going?

Getting answers to spending questions as well as revenue questions can help ensure precious public resources are being used wisely and allocated to where they are most needed. Questions like those below can help find resolve to this key issue:

• How much has per pupil spending increased since Robin Hood went into effect after adjusting for inflation? What has been the per pupil spending trend of Robin Hood donor districts vs. Robin Hood recipients?
• What is the split between classroom vs. non-classroom spending? How has this percentage changed since Robin Hood? How does this percentage vary between Robin Hood donor and recipient districts?
• What state and local policy decisions have unnecessarily increased the scope of public school responsibilities, necessitating greater spending and taxation?
• What are the common budget items in the non-classroom spending category and what are the trends in spending for those non-classroom expenses?
• Since Robin Hood, what has been the change in academic performance for both donor and recipient districts?

(Note to Reader: If you know the answers to these questions or know where they can be found, please post in the “Comments” section below. Be sure to include citations.)

In other words…..

What have property-poor school administrators been doing this whole time with that Robin Hood booty in their far-flung, bureaucratic baronies?

Where has our tax money gone in Texas public schools, what has it paid for, and what results can be shown for it?

Where are the Republicans who believe:

• “…that government spending is out of control and needs to be reduced” *
• “…that our education system is experiencing a spending crisis, not a funding crisis”*
• “…the legislature should resist the temptation to create any new tax”*

* Actual quotes from the 2004 Republican Party of Texas platform.

Hopefully, some will be found in the Senate. Stay tuned….

From: ruben.hope@txcaucus.com [mailto:ruben.hope@txcaucus.com]
Sent: Sunday, March 13, 2005 6:16 PM
To: ruben.hope@txcaucus.com
Subject: Updated Talking Points: HB2 & HB3

Dear Caucus Members:

For your convenience, the Caucus has put together an updated list of updated talking points on HB 2 & HB 3. Please feel free to use these points at your discretion. If you have any questions or need additional information, please contact the Caucus office at (512) 482-9766.

Ruben Hope
Chairman
Republican Caucus

=============================================================

HB 2 a Winner for Schools, Students, Teachers and School Funding

HB 2, the Roadmap to Results school reform legislation, passed this House of Representatives this week.

HB 2 continues a public school funding trend set by GOP Governors George W. Bush and Rick Perry. In 1999, the state’s commitment to public education was $26.7 billion. Under HB 2, $36.8 billion per year will be available to our public schools. That’s an increase in education funding of a whopping 38 percent in just six years.

This legislation paves the way for record increases in public school funding and the state’s share of education funding, new pay incentives for outstanding teachers, stronger school accountability measures, taxpayer protections, and new strategies to improve low-performing schools.

Among the key provisions of HB 2 are:

• Strong excellence and accountability reforms, including:
• Mentoring programs to help beginning teachers learn from veteran high-achieving teachers.
• Measuring student performance in terms of improvement instead of just raw test scores, and measuring the success of bilingual education programs in terms of progress toward English proficiency.
• Converting all state tests to on-line starting in Spring 2006, and funds to pay for college readiness assessments like the SAT and ACT tests.
  
• Establishing (or Creating) end-of-course exams to measure and improve rigor of high school courses.
  
• Holding failing schools more accountable, and provides regulatory relief for high-performing campuses.
  
• An historic 96% of students in an equalized system (up from 81% today).
• Drives $0.50 of every new dollar to teacher compensation, including base salary increases of up to $3,000 and incentives for high performance.
  
• Record funding increases of more than $3 billion on top of $1.2 billion for enrollment growth - roughly $15,000 per 22-student classroom - without raising Texas' tax burden.
• Increases the state’s share of funding from 38 percent to 60 percent.
• Reduces Robin Hood recapture from more than $1.1 billion to less than $150 million and enacts a 35% cap on the amount of funds that can be recaptured from a school district.
• Increases transportation funding and updates the formula for the first time in more than two decades, providing each school district $1.50 per mile for transporting students to school.
• Establishes more transparency in spending by requiring new financial reports for campuses and districts.

Raising education standards and accountability. Record school funding. Record equity. Raising teachers salaries. Mitigating Robin Hood.

HB2 - Improving Texas Schools for the 21^st Century.

#####

You may have noticed that my blogroll has significantly increased lately. This is one of the serendipitous benefits of using Bloglines.com. Not only can you view many blogs in a categorized list (I currently have nearly 50 sites bloglined, and can scan the headlines in 3 to 5 minutes), you can also use it to create a categorized blogroll, like the one I have to the left. Once you paste the Bloglines HTML code onto your blog template, it will automagically display the same links that are in your Bloglines list. There’s no need to get you hands dirty with raw HTML coding after that. TexasTommy sez “Check it out!”

There are a few of sites among the newcomers I particularly want to direct your attention to….

A Texan Abroad documents the lives and times of a Texas military family traipsing the globe for the defense of freedom. Check out the posts on getting orders to move out and her choice words for the United Auto Workers.

Both Worlds: Deep theological thoughts mixed in with news analysis from a Christian worldview. Where else can you get inspired commentary on abortion, health care, and American Idol?

A Little Pollyanna has a very creative and compelling user experience. It almost has a "Monty Python" ambiance. Now all it needs is the Monty Python theme song. I love the circus motif. Pollyanna usually blogs on events at the Texas Capitol, so maybe the circus look and feel is an appropriate metaphor.

Rick Perry v. The World is about the closest thing I’ve seen to a conservative blog covering the Capitol. In this case it only covers one person in the Capitol, Governor Perry, but that’s a start. Check out the summary of Kinky Friedman’s appearance on The O’Reilly Factor:

O'REILLY: OK. Are you a religious man, by the way?
FRIEDMAN: Yes, I'm a Judeo-Christian. Jesus and Moses are in my heart, and...
O'REILLY: Both of them there?
FRIEDMAN: And both of them were independents, by the way

Oh man, I was rolling when I read that!

Between Kinky, Gov. Goodhair, the Crazy Grandma, Kay Bailey and the 7 Dem Dwarves, 2006 is going to provide ample, Texas poliblog fodder. The funny posts will almost write themselves.

Russell and McCullough has discovered a disturbing report making the rounds at the University of Texas Dean of Students Office. The report is published by Public Research Associates (PRA), "an independent, nonprofit research center that exposes and challenges the Right and larger oppressive movements, institutions, and forces". What does the Dean of Students Office intend to do with this information?

Andrew at the Burnt Orange Report recently posted a fascinating essay where he re-contemplates abortion. The refreshing thing about this post is that it is rigorously thoughtful but happily devoid of the hardboiled rhetoric that typically travels with this topic. Sadly, the same can not be said for all the comments.

CounterColumn chronicles the crankiness Round Rock ISD voters showed towards the recent school bond proposal. Apparently, our more conservative neighbors to the north are getting fed up with local taxing entities taking an ever-increasing bite out of their pocketbooks for questionable projects. I hope this attitude soon spreads to Travis County.

Finally, today I posted a primer for Christian blogging at TexasTommy.org, VitW's companion blog.