The House will vote on a statewide property tax proposal before the Senate gets to it, a vote likely to kill a key provision of the Senate's school finance package.

House Speaker Tom Craddick doesn't think the statewide property tax has the 100 votes it needs to pass the House, but he said it is likely to come up for a vote within the next two weeks. A No vote would be one way to tell the Senate to work on something else.

The last time the House caught flak for a tax bill, the members voted overwhelming to silence the critic — Gov. Rick Perry, who'd called their version of a payroll tax a "job killer."

Ultimately, there was no solution to school finance in that round, partly because House leaders didn't want to stick their necks out for another whack from Perry. The Guv got the message and has been walking politely on eggshells this year; offered several chances to comment on a new House tax package that once again includes a payroll tax, he has tiptoed, saying he wants to see what the Legislature finally produces and doesn't want to prejudge their efforts. With the possible exception of gambling, he's stuck to that.

The tension this time is between the House and Senate. The House, with few votes to spare, passed a huge tax bill that gives businesses a choice between a variant of that payroll tax and a variant of the current franchise tax. Senators, led in this by Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, have publicly "agreed in principle" to a statewide property tax and a business activity tax as key parts of a school finance fix. (Both the House and Senate plans include some smaller levies and increases in current taxes and fees.)

The House's tax writers looked at a BAT without moving forward with it. And Craddick doesn't think his members will support a constitutional amendment creating a state property tax for schools.

Many local school districts and officials don't like the state tax for fear it would remove their control over tax revenues. Supporters say it would get the state out of one of the knottiest problems with school finance: State property taxes are unconstitutional, but the state Legislature wants to dictate, more or less, what rates local districts can charge, which is unconstitutional when most districts bump against a state-set cap on rates. Going the other way — by giving the locals full control — creates big disparities in how much money is available for schools, and too much difference between what's available to the Haves and the Have-Nots is what started the school finance war in the first place, three decades ago.

The House's plan has a new cap on local school property tax rates (it would lower the current $1.50 cap to $1) but allows districts to raise more money for local use so long as local taxpayers approve. The Republican education wizards in the House say that additional local money gives the districts the "meaningful discretion" the courts have used to decide whether or not a state cap on rates is, in effect, an unconstitutional state property tax. 

The Senate wizards grumble some, but don't flatly disagree with that. Instead, they say a statewide property tax for schools would remove all doubt; it would be in the constitution, and to get there, voters would have to approve. That shields the tax itself from attack on constitutional grounds in the courts, and shields politicians from their vote for a new tax, since that idea would have to be ratified by voters themselves. Senators add a sweetener for the school districts by allowing them to add local taxes for local "enrichment" spending.

The Senate has laid out a slowdown strategy that would have a tax bill coming to a vote in that chamber in the last month of the session, leaving little time for major negotiations over House and Senate differences. In the worst light, that's a take-it-or-leave-it approach. In the best light, it gives lawmakers a chance to zip through a tax bill before lobbyists gnaw it to death.

The House, by voting on a state property tax before the Senate gets its shoes on, would send a signal. A Yes vote would clear the way for a solution to school finance sure to clear the Senate and immune to a gubernatorial veto (governors don't get a crack at constitutional amendments). A No vote would tell the Senate to drop the idea, and could either push that body toward the House plan, or could push both chambers to the impasse they reached a year ago, when they failed to work out school finance in a special session.

Twins, Barely

The Senate rolled out its own version of the education reform bill and it barely resembles its House counterpart. They might be twin bills, but they're fraternal -- not identical. Sen. Florence Shapiro, R-Plano, said she hasn't done a side-by-side of her bill and the House's, and doesn't plan to. You'll have to wait until they go to conference to see that, apparently. The legislation is 300-some-odd pages long, but there's a cheat sheet put together by Shapiro's staff (click here for PDF version).

Some high points from the Senate version:

• Relies on a statewide property tax and allows local enrichment of up to 15 cents over a six-year period.

• Teachers would get a $1,000 pay raise; their health stipend would be raised back to $1,000, and they'd be free to use that as they please.

• Public vouchers for private schools are not included, and Shapiro said she doesn't have plans to add them later.

• Adds $3.2 billion in new funding for schools; financing for that will presumeably be included in the Senate's version of the House tax bill now pending in Senate Finance.

Shapiro laid out her version of the bill but hasn't started taking testimony on it; she hopes to have it to the full Senate for a vote later this month. The other half of that issue — how to fund the tax cut — is in a tax bill the Senate hopes to vote out in the first or second week of May

These Kids Today

Back in the day, people who got sufficiently frothed at a politician would fire off a letter to the editor, or write an op-ed piece, or maybe lobby a reporter or editor for a story. Really cranky voters would turn into candidates and try to knock off the object of their scorn.

In this modern world, you put together a low-cost 30-second ad, hopefully with a funny edge to it that will prompt people to tell their friends. You post it on your Internet site, put a fundraising button next to it, and cross your fingers. If you raise enough money, you put the ad on real TV, getting a reaction that used to be possible with a simple letter to the editor, etc.

That's the model for many of the ads running against U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (see last week's issue, and the next item), for the MoveOn and Swift Boat Veterans ads that made such a splash during the last presidential campaign, and it's gonna be a feature, probably, of the next round of campaigns here.

And in legislative fights. An edited version of Rep. Gene Seaman's semi-famous tirade on Viagra is the basis for an ad by an outfit called PracticeWhatYouPreach.org, which is rampaging against legislative proposals to make same-sex marriages illegal in Texas. Their website says they're not a gay rights group, but that divorce and domestic violence pose greater threats to marriage than gays do.

The political action committee wants to run the Seaman ad, called "Tool" on television in the Republican's hometown of Corpus Christi.

The DeLay Dogpile

One of the same groups that ran TV ads last week pestering U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Sugar Land, has changed media.

The Washington, D.C.-based Campaign for America's Future bought a full-page ad in the Washington Times that features the headline "The New Face of American Conservatism?" and pictures of Dwight Eisenhower, Barry Goldwater, Ronald Reagan and DeLay. The first three pictures are in a straight line; DeLay's appears to have "slipped" below the line. The text starts with "Once upon a time... CONSERVATIVES STOOD FOR HONEST GOVERNMENT... Now, their chosen leader is the symbol of money corruption in Washington."

The TV ads ran a week ago in and around DeLay's home base, but the newspaper ads are confined for now to the Beltway. A spokesman for the group said they're planning to bang the drum in other places over the next few weeks.

See the full ad here.

Why Shoot a Judge?

U.S. Sen. John Cornyn started a brushfire Monday with comments — part of a speech on the Senate floor — suggesting a connection between recent courthouse violence and judges who are "making political decisions yet are unaccountable to the public."

Cornyn, a former trial judge, Texas Supreme Court justice and state attorney general, was taking issue with the U.S. Supreme Court in particular, and with judges of a certain kind on that and other courts. Aides said afterward that Cornyn's comments were taken out of context — that he's a defender of the courts — but you'll be seeing this in the papers for a few days.

The part that made news, in full:

"I believe the increasing politicization of the judicial decision-making process at the highest levels of our judiciary has bred a lack of respect for some of the people who wear the robe. That is a national tragedy.

"Finally, I don't know if there is a cause-and-effect connection, but we have seen some recent episodes of courthouse violence in this country — certainly nothing new; we seem to have run through a spate of courthouse violence recently that has been on the news. I wonder whether there may be some connection between the perception in some quarters on some occasions where judges are making political decisions yet are unaccountable to the public, that it builds up and builds up to the point where some people engage in violence, certainly without any justification, but that is a concern I have that I wanted to share."

Cornyn has been mentioned recently as a potential nominee for the federal appellate bench. One recurring bit of gossip has President George W. Bush appointing him to the U.S. Supreme Court; other, also related and unsubstantiated political gossip has the president picking Cornyn for a lower federal appeals court. The two are allies in Washington and were in Texas, and Cornyn was another of Karl Rove's clients until Rove gave up (almost) every campaign but the big one.

We asked Cornyn's office what was going on — we're in Austin after all, outside the big bubble and inside the little one — and they sent a copy of the senator's full comments (a copy of all 8 pages of it can be found here). He goes on for quite a bit, but it would be hard to call it a pro-judiciary speech. He took another run at it the next day, saying his remarks were being spun by political enemies and that he does not have it in for his former colleagues in black.

Cornyn's tempest hit a fast boil, in part, because it followed on the heels of comments made by U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Sugar Land. Speaking after the death of Terri Schiavo, DeLay blasted the judges who refused to order doctors to reinser the Florida woman's feeding tube. "We will look at an arrogant, out-of-control, unaccountable judiciary that thumbed their nose at Congress and the president," he said. "... The time will come for the men responsible for this to answer for their behavior."

21... 20... 19...

Life without parole got through the Senate once, and that was before the courts made it so hard to execute killers who were underage or mentally retarded. Sen. Eddie Lucio, D-Brownsville, thought he had just enough votes to bring the issue up for debate, but the measure was knocked down before the warm-ups were over. And it was knocked down again the next day, when Lucio thought the right combination of ayes and nays were in the room.

Lucio didn't point to any particular member, but said one of the crucial votes came from a senator who had told Lucio he needed to talk to local officials first. They never talked after that, and Lucio found out when he brought up the legislation that that senator — it later turned out to be Sen. Kevin Eltife, R-Tyler — had decided to vote No. Lucio said another male senator — he wouldn't identify him — had indicated he'd vote to consider the bill if it appeared that would be the prevailing vote. The Houston Chronicle reported later that that second voter was Sen. Jon Lindsay, R-Houston.

What failed was a procedural vote and not a vote on the bill itself; the Senate can try again if and when they think they've got the two-thirds they need. Lucio said he'll keep track of any changes, and suggested he could also wait until the right senators are out of pocket; he needs two-thirds of the members in attendance, not two-thirds of the whole Senate. He was trying to take advantage of Eltife's absense when he made his second vote, but an aye was also missing that day, and Lucio will have to keep circling.

The policy argument made by Lucio is that Life without Parole — the policy wonks refer to it as LWOP — will actually make for tougher sentencing than current law. A life sentence in Texas means a killer must serve 40 years before being eligible for parole. Juries consider two questions after they find someone guilty of capital murder. First, does the killer pose a future danger? Second, were there mitigating circumstances?

If the answer to the first question is yes and the second is no, Lucio says both his bill and current law would give jurors the death penalty option. If the answer to both questions is Yes, then jurors now go to a life sentence (with possible parole after 40 years). Under his bill, Lucio says, their option in that second case would be life without parole. The same is true, he says, if the jury found the killer to be a continuing threat but couldn't decide on mitigating circumstances: Life under current law, LWOP under his proposal. If the killer doesn't pose a future threat or the jury can't decide that question, both current law and Lucio's bill would make life with parole the maximum sentence. In each case, he says, the jury's option would be at least as harsh as it is now and that in many cases, would give them a harsher option than is currently available. One example he gives: A 17-year-old murderer, under current law and given recent court decisions, can't be sentenced to death; the next best option gives them a chance at getting out of prison in 40 years. His bill would create the option of imprisoning them until they die.

Some prosecutors think LWOP would make juries more likely to lock up killers and throw away the key than to sentence killers to death. And some — Eltife indicated he might go for this — might be willing to support LWOP as a replacement to the current version of life in prison. Lucio said he won't go for that option.

Flotsam & Jetsam

Workers' compensation insurance might get a makeover this session and it might not. The House and Senate are in a whizzing contest over who should carry the issue. The agency that runs the system is in its sunset year — if it's charter isn't renewed, it's out of business. Last year, the Sunset Advisory Commission, headed by Rep. Burt Solomons, R-Carrollton, studied the thing and made recommendations that are now wrapped into legislation authored by Solomons and passed by the House. But a Senate interim committee studied the issue, too, and legislation born there and sponsored by Sen. Todd Staples, R-Palestine, was approved by the Senate and sent to the House. Lawmakers can't agree who should prevail. The House contends the Senate agreed to take Solomons' version back in January. The Senate cites a tradition that the first bill to pass on a given issue is the one that's used to carry the thing forward. Staples passed his bill first, and says it should be the vehicle. At the moment, neither chamber has agreed to hear the other's legislation, though there are some small efforts being made to break the logjam.

• Two things are new about appraisal caps: people are opening admitting they're in trouble in the House, and the House has put the legislation on the calendar for next week. Gov. Rick Perry said so to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, and House Speaker Tom Craddick told reporters the proposals are being revamped to build support. Rep. Dwayne Bohac, R-Houston, wants to cap the annual growth in appraised property values. So does Perry, who pitched a three percent cap that has now morphed into a five percent cap. But Craddick said the latest idea is to leave city and county governments out of the legislation, focusing on property appraisal caps on schools and other taxing entities. Cities and counties have been loud in their opposition to the caps, and they've apparently convinced enough House members that the idea is faulty. Lowering the caps from the current 10 percent would require a constitutional amendment, and 100 votes in the House. Another alternative — capping the revenue growth allowed to local governments without public approval — would require only a simple majority and is still in the mix.

• Kinky Friedman, trying to become the first independent gubernatorial candidate to get on the ballot since Sam Houston, is emailing supporters a "Save My Vote for Kinky" flyer, asking them to sign up friends who'll agree to register to vote, to skip the Democratic and Republican primaries next year (voting disqualifies petition signers), and to agree to sign the petition to put Friedman on the ballot. He can't collect signatures toward that candidacy until after the primaries, but he can corral names now for use later. He's also starting to make appearances in non-televised places. Friedman will do a "Spiritual Walk For Independence" on the University of Texas campus April 20.

• U.S. Rep. Henry Bonilla, R-San Antonio, claims to have raised $780,000 in the first three months of the year, which would bring his cash on hand total close to $2 million. He wants to run for the U.S. Senate if Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas decides to leave that job. Hutchison is mulling a run against Gov. Rick Perry.

• A friend with an eye on the Texas Legislature cribbed the following from The New York Times, which was detailing how a new pope is elected. "In 1271, after the papal throne was vacant for three years, anxious Catholics locked up the indecisive cardinals in a crumbling building and put them on a strict diet of bread and water until they made a decision. For an extra dose of motivation, the roof was removed. After enduring rain and harsh sunshine, the cardinals finally elected Pope Gregory X."

• An addendum to last week's item on liberal groups hoping to swing U.S. senators from Texas and elsewhere against changing Senate filibuster rules: Both Texas senators — Kay Bailey Hutchison and John Cornyn — say they're for the rule change that would make it more difficult for the minority to block a president's judicial appointees.

Political People and Their Moves

You wouldn't want to run your business like a political campaign, right? Texan Matthew Dowd, fresh off George W. Bush's reelection campaign, is teaming up with Doug Sosnik, a former aide to Bill Clinton, and Ron Fournier, a national political writer with the Associated Press, on a book about strategy and tactics useful to both political campaigns and business expansion. Their case studies: Bush, Clinton, and the Applebee's restaurant chain, which has been growing like a weed for several years. The book comes out in the fall. A blurb from the promotional materials tells you what they're after: "Aimed at political leaders, business executives and the people they covet, the book will be a survivors' guide to life in an era of transition." Dowd says the writing is still underway.

Former state senator and U.S. Rep. Jim Turner, D-Crockett, will make his daily bread as a lobster. Turner, who has said he'd like to run for office again at some point, will be working as a lobbyist and lawyer with the Arnold & Porter law firm. He says he'll spend most of his time in Washington, D.C., but some in Austin, where he's already been spotted lurking.

Pat Wood III doesn't want another term on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and will step down when this one's over June 30. The former chairman of the Texas Public Utility Commission told Washington reporters he'll head back to Texas.

Political consultant Bryan Eppstein of Fort Worth finished the Cowtown Marathon. The key word in that sentence is finished. He had two bypass operations two years ago, and whines about knee injuries that impeded him. But he walked the distance and got back in 5 hours 28 minutes.

Deaths: State District Judge Edward Aparicio of Weslaco, apparently of self-inflicted gunshot wounds. He was 48.

Quotes of the Week

Midland County GOP Chair Sue Brannon, telling the Midland Reporter-Telegram that U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison shouldn't run against Gov. Rick Perry: "It recently came out in the Reporter-Telegram that Kay said she had not heard anybody say Perry was doing a good job and didn't want her to run. I had 14 calls from people who don't want her to by 9 a.m. the next morning and told them all to call her office."

More from Brannon, in that same story: "She [Hutchison] told me she adopted two kids, 4 and 5, and doesn't want to raise them in Washington. I said, 'You knew that when you adopted those children, and a nanny is raising them anyway!' That's her main reason. They're in Dallas, and she said it's wearing her out going back and forth."

Hutchison spokesman Dave Beckwith, asked if his boss and Brannon had such a conversation: "No, they did not. Period."

Former GOP gubernatorial candidate Clayton Williams, after telling the Midland Reporter-Telegram he would back Perry financially in a governor's race against Hutchison: "When it's 50/50, I'll always support an Aggie."

Austinite Patty Edelman, testifying against vouchers before the House Public Education committee in the middle of the night as the panel's session neared its close: "I was sitting, listening to the radio earlier, and I heard this sucking sound and it was coming from here, and it caused me to get in the car and drive down here tonight so I could express my dismay... "

Gov. Rick Perry, in a Fort Worth Star-Telegram story on gambling legislation: "I would think everything's still on the table. With that said, I have said since the start of the session, and we got our revenue estimate, that gambling of any form and fashion has a higher hurdle to clear than it did six months ago, when the state had substantial deficit."

Perry spokesperson Kathy Walt, quoted by the Associated Press: "The fact of the matter is the governor has never been a proponent of gambling."

From Perry's official proclamation detailing issues approved for consideration in last year's special legislative session on school finance: "To consider legislation and amendments to the constitution that authorize and allow the placement and licensing of video lottery terminals at licensed racetracks and certain Indian reservations, providing that the revenue derived from such activity is dedicated to the Educational Excellence Fund, providing that the racetracks and tribes sign a contract with the state."

John Cole, president of the Texas Federation of Teachers, quoted in The Dallas Morning News: "There are people out there promoting the idea that public schools are bad. You'd almost forget that we have a president who ran on the idea that he had fixed the schools in Texas."

Rep. Warren Chisum, R-Pampa, defending his proposal to outlaw same-sex marriages: "It doesn't discriminate against a person. It discriminates against practices."

House Speaker Tom Craddick, after (a lot of) members started the sound of bombs falling in reaction to a spending proposal by Rep. Stephen Frost, D-Atlanta (which later failed 36-100): "Members, y'all can shoot fireworks on the Fourth of July. Would you please give Mr. Frost your attention?"

Rep. Al Edwards, D-Houston, quoted in the San Antonio Express-News: "There are just too many people being bitten by dogs, hurt by dogs, maimed by dogs. I don't exactly know what's wrong with the dogs these days that they bite people so much now."

Alex Brennan, owner of Brennan's of Houston, quoted in the Houston Press on problems with alcohol laws in Texas: "It doesn't make sense that just because I serve hard liquor, I pay a higher tax rate on beer and wine. I can get just as drunk either way.

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Texas Weekly: Volume 21, Issue 41, 11 April 2005. Ross Ramsey, Editor. George Phenix, Publisher. Copyright 2005 by Printing Production Systems, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission from the publisher is prohibited. One-year online subscription: $250. For information about your subscription, call (800) 611-4980 or email info@texasweekly.com. For news, email ramsey@texasweekly.com, or call (512) 288-6598.

You got your budget. You got your school finance/reform bill. You got your tax bill. And then you have everything else. If there's a notable feature to this legislative session, it's that those three pieces of legislation have sucked the oxygen out of the room.There are other bills of note -- appraisal caps, workers compensation insurance, the water bill, some sunset bills, and so on -- but the report card on this Legislature will focus on the three big deals. The budget is underway, with conference committees named from both Houses and the crunchers of numbers banging away on side-by-side comparisons of the bills. The school finance and tax bills are both out of the House -- that happened weeks ago -- and meandering through the Senate. The school bill is public, at least. The tax bill went to Sen. Steve Ogden's Finance Committee, then to four subcommittees, and was last seen in one of the negotiating theaters attached to the lieutenant governor's office. We're told they'll show something to the public soon, maybe even while this edition of the newsletter is still warm. As you know, they're attempting to revise the current corporate franchise tax to add more business taxpayers and lower rates. The current tax only applies to about 17 percent of the corporations in the state once everyone's accountants have gone to work. The Legislature wants a broader tax with a lower rate. One version knocked around on the Senate side would work like the current tax but would apply to all kinds of businesses -- specifically including all the flavors of business partnerships now excluded from the tax. They'd pay their choice of .25 percent (that's 1/4 of one percent) of "net taxable capital" or 1.95 percent of "net taxable earned surplus." The earlier term is used in the current franchise tax; the latter is a modified business activity tax that pulls in a company's Texas income, its payroll (with deductions for the lesser of 50 percent of income per worker, or $30,000, and for part-timers). The income side excludes foreign income, but includes income stuffed away in affiliates and so on. So far, the House has been wary of taxing partnerships, while the Senate has always worked to include them. And the politics are gnarly. The House already voted on a tax bill and there's some conversation on that end of the building about the dangers of voting on another one that contradicts or compounds the earlier vote. They'd relax a little if the Senate would just go along with the House plan. Senators are in the same boat, though, having voted on a tax plan two years ago. They're also at risk -- if there is one -- for voting for different tax bills to solve school finance. Another level of discussions is about the size of the local school property tax cut. Legislators from both chambers are trying to produce a 50-cent cut for most taxpayers, but before the current legislative session, the conversations were about smaller bites, in the range of 25 to 30 cents. Lawmakers are trying to find the point where a Big Enough Property Tax Cut intersects with a Small As Possible Tax Bill. They're trying to get as much juice as possible with as little squeeze as possible. Some argue that it doesn't matter -- that a vote for a little tax bill is no safer than a vote for a big one, and that the only appeasement that will keep voters heeled is a large property tax cut.

The first bill, life in prison, school spending, running for office, paying taxes and How Many Texans Are There?• There's something circular about the first piece of legislation signed this session by Gov. Rick Perry. It allows local governments to use tax money to attract government spending. They'll be able to use some of the money they collect from sales taxes for improvements to military bases, helping those communities show some commitment to federal officials thinking about which bases to close and which ones to keep open. • After spiking the current version of life in prison, the Texas Senate approved a life without parole bill that had stalled. A handful of prosecutors opposed the no parole option for fear jurors would prefer it to the death penalty. Sen. Eddie Lucio, D-Brownsville, wanted three sentencing options in capital murder cases: death, life without parole, and the current life penalty with its possibility of parole after 40 years. The Senate agreed to open Door Number Two but only if Door Number Three is closed. That bill is on its way to the House. His staff put an ominous headline on their press release about the bill's passage: "Senate Approves Life Without Parole and Removes Life". • The freshest argument for easier access to information about school spending comes from Texas Businesses for Educational Excellence, which peeled back the curtains to find the number of central administrators has increased 37 percent since 1997 while student populations grew 13 percent. Operating expenses, according to that group, increased 57 percent over that period. That group's membership overlaps significantly with the Governor's Business Council, a group of CEOs from Texas companies. They, and Gov. Perry, want information on school spending to be easier to get to, so voters can see where the money's going. • Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, through his trusty aides, says he didn't tell an audience in The Woodlands that he wants to run for U.S. Senate in 2010. For one thing, neither of the Texas seats in the U.S. Senate is on the ballot that year. What he said was that he'd like to run for governor in 2010, and he also reiterated his endorsement of Gov. Perry's reelection next year. Dewhurst, at this point, wants to succeed Perry. • Texas ranks 43rd among the states in state-local tax burden, according to the Tax Foundation. That's the outfit that calculates "Tax Day" each year to tell us when we've stopped working for our various governments and started working for our mortgages and car loans and grocery stores. Tax day nationally is April 17. In Texas, it was on April 14. The state ranks 22nd in overall tax burden when local and state taxes are combined with federal taxes. That could drop next year, when deductible sales taxes are reflected in the numbers. On average, Texans pay 9.3 percent of their incomes to state and local governments as tax, and a total of 28.4 percent of income when state, local, and federal taxes are combined. The U.S. averages for those numbers are 10.1 percent and 29.1 percent, respectively. • If you go by percentages, the list of the ten fastest-growing counties in the U.S. includes, in the sixth position, Lampasas County, Texas. The Census Bureau's newest population estimates are out; Lampasas grew 7.3 percent from 2003 to 2004. Three counties in the U.S. made it into the top 10 in overall population and in number of people added during those two years: Los Angeles County, California, Maricopa County (Phoenix), Arizona, and Harris County, Texas. Texas had 12 counties among the nation's 100 fastest-growing, and had three (Harris, Tarrant, and Collin) in the top ten. The state added 386,648 to its population from July 2003 to July 2004 according to the estimate. If you plunked that many people in an unpopulated area and called it a county, it would be the 12th largest in the state, bigger, for instance, than Montgomery or Williamson or Nueces. As of July, they said, Texas had a population of 22,490,022.

Appraisal caps don't have the support in the Texas House they apparently have in some pockets of the state.In two days time, the residents of the Legislature's lower chamber knocked down two separate measures that would have made it more difficult for local governments to increase their incomes from property taxes. The first would have capped property values for tax purposes; the values would do whatever the market dictated, but increases of more than five percent each year would have fallen outside of property tax range. A bipartisan group in favor of that idea was outnumbered by a bipartisan group that opposed it. (Of 81 votes against the bill, 36 were cast by Republicans and 45 by Democrats; on the other side, there were 49 Republicans and 16 Democrats. House Speaker Tom Craddick didn't vote.) In a deft bit of legislative maneuvering, the bill was killed in a way that prevents its sponsor, Rep. Dwayne Bohac, R-Houston, from bringing it back to life. The next day was Rep. Carl Isett's turn to try legislation that would have forced local governments to win approval from voters for any increase in property tax revenues of more than three percent, whether that came from higher values, higher rates, or growth in the tax base. Isett, a Lubbock Republican, made the idea more palatable with an amendment that basically put the locals on longer leashes, but like Bohac's measure the day before, it was first attacked with hostile amendments and finally killed with a point of order pointing out some incurable problem with the way the legislation came up for consideration. It could come back, in theory. Still in the works is a Senate version of Bohac's bill; whether the upper chamber wants to take a crack after the rough week in the House is unclear. Conventional wisdom: The House actions smacked Gov. Rick Perry, who has mentioned appraisal caps and limits on property tax growth in two out of two State of the State speeches over the last three years. There's something to be said for the counterpoint: Perry can (and apparently plans to) make the push for limits on local government spending a plank in his reelection platform. What looks to Austin hacks like a humiliating slap -- Perry made one of his infrequent forays onto the House floor a week before the votes to bolster support -- can be marketed as a setback on the way to getting government to hold back taxing and spending. That's not a bad product in a GOP primary. A weak spot, pointed out by The Dallas Morning News in a story on state spending, is that Perry and other current and former state leaders haven't done as state officials what they're asking local officials to do. With the exception of the current budget, written by lawmakers facing a $10 billion shortfall, each state budget since 1996 has increased between four percent and 10.5 percent, according to the paper. Had their proposed three percent limit been on their own actions, voters would have been called in each time to say okay.

Campaigns for People, a campaign finance reform advocacy group, is running radio ads to try to unplug legislation that would outlaw so-called informational ads in the 60 days before an election.Rep. Bryan Hughes, R-Mineola, chairs a subcommittee where that bill was stuck, and the radio ads are running in his district. In the ad, a man and woman are complaining about corporate commercials in campaigns, and the man says there's legislation to change that. The woman asks about the local rep -- Hughes -- and the man says, "Oh, he's on the fence and is the deciding committee vote." An announcer then instructs listeners to call him and gives his phone number. How's this for a twist? It's an issue ad, and under current law (and with no election in sight), the advocates don't have to disclose who contributes to them and thus, who pays for the ad. You can here it online at: www.cleanuptexaspolitics.com/hb1348.mp3 That legislation is more popular in the Texas House than most of the bills that have already come to a vote, including education reform, taxes, appraisal caps, and big chunks of the appropriations bill. It had, at last check, 93 sponsors, including all 63 Democrats in the House and 30 Republicans. They're pushing for a vote, using an old line from House Speaker Tom Craddick as a prod. Craddick, when he was elected speaker (or when it was apparent that he would be) told reporters that Rep. John Longoria, D-San Antonio, had been unable to get a bill out of committee even though a majority of House members had signed on as co-authors, and said that sort of thing wouldn't happen on his watch.

Once upon a time, Texas politicians could get in trouble for having their names appear too prominently on the reports printed by the government to fill dusty shelves in legislative offices. Now you can put your name and face more prominently on your state-supported Internet site than the name of the agency where you're serving; the average officeholder is as bashful about promotion as the average car dealer.And in this environment, a television commercial featuring the governor for all but a few of its 30 seconds goes unremarked. That last one -- a commercial targeted at business people in the other 49 states -- prominently features Gov. Rick Perry. The spot touts the "governor's cup" award from Site Selection magazine that was awarded to Texas a few months back. Perry does almost all of the talking, over pictures of him, of the award ceremony and of various Texas landmarks and locales. You can watch it on the governor's state website: www.governor.state.tx.us/divisions/ecodev/files/TexasWideOpenTVspot.mpeg State taxpayers aren't paying for the commercials, and the spots are running outside of Texas, in Washington, D.C., Detroit, and Sacramento and San Jose, California, through the end of next week. The total cost, born by a 501-c-3 outfit affiliated with the governor's economic development office, is $123,808. The governor's office is open about who contributes to the Texas One Foundation, though disclosure isn't required. That outfit got $100,000 each from Introgen Therapeutics, Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corp., and Verizon Communications. Five donors gave $50,000: CenterPoint Energy, TXU (Oncor), SBC, Greater Austin Economic Development, and AGC of Texas Infrastructure Education Fund. • Texas Secretary of State Roger Williams, who really is a car dealer, started his job with an extensive road schedule. He's traveling to county courthouses around Texas to push the Help America Vote Act, a federal deal that's run through his office. He's hitting five to ten counties a week, which lets him tell the county officials and local voters about HAVA and how much money is available to each of them, and to hold press conferences and all that. He's not a candidate or anything, but this is the sort of groundwork that a future candidate might do.

With six weeks left in the legislative session, lawmakers and lobsters are starting to fidget and look at their watches. If a bill isn't out of committee within a week or so, and hasn't already passed either the House or the Senate, it'll need help to get to the finish line.For major bills with management imprimaturs (visible or invisible), there's plenty of time. But the average piece of legislation, if it's to get all the way through the process, needs to roll. Nothing's dead yet, but in a week's time, lots of legislation will be running a low fever. Expect the pace to quicken. Some scatter-shooting: • Rep. Joe Nixon, R-Houston, says he's waiting to see what the Senate will do with limits on asbestos litigation before he'll try to get a House vote. The Senate has been the higher hurdle, and Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst has been personally involved in negotiations to get that issue unstuck (and two others: the tax bill and the telecommunications bill). • Workers compensation insurance remains jammed. The Senate passed a bill and the House passed a bill and neither side has been willing to hear the other side's bill. An attempt to split the thing so everybody would have something to brag about fell short. • Sen. Ken Armbrister, D-Victoria, followed his announcement of a big water bill with a substitute and seems to have made some progress bringing together some groups that historically fight. But it's got a small tax in it -- 13 cents for every 1,000 gallons, with no tax on the first 5,000 gallons -- and that's produced some opposition. Rep. Robert Puente, R-San Antonio, is the House leader on water, and has taken a piecemeal approach instead of writing one big bill. • Gambling proposals are still alive, even though most handicappers don't see the votes for either slot machines or full-blown casinos. That could change if there's something like a deal on school finance. One bill to watch, since it has to pass and it's a potential vehicle for everything else: The lottery commission's sunset bill. And the opposition to gambling is still percolating, too. Rep. Corbin Van Arsdale, R-Tomball, snagged a letter from Florida Gov. Jeb Bush to the Christian Coalition of South Florida that blasts gaming interests there. In the letter, Bush tells the group that Florida proponents of gambling expansion are "seducing the voters with the hollow promise of more education funding." A copy of the letter is available on our website: www.texasweekly.com/documents/JebBushGaming.pdf In Texas, the lobbyists promoting a constitutional amendment to allow casinos claim gaming, once it's up and running, would bring $5.5 billion into the state treasury every two years. That amount would cover half the cost of lowering local school property taxes by 50 cents, and would halve the size of the state tax bill needed to fund that property tax cut. Their pitch is online at: www.LetTheVotersDecide.com. • Have any siblings? Kids? Know any men? You already have a basic understanding of negotiating a telecommunications bill. Every player has one eye on what it's getting and another eye on what the other guys are getting. In the phone/cable/Internet/gizmo business, each outfit wants its data/voice pipeline to be the biggest and to go where everyone else's pipeline goes. And the players who are forced to serve markets they don't want in order to get lucrative markets want to make sure their competitors also have to serve the ugly customers. There are details, but that's the essence of the thing. An interesting breakout issue is usually referred to a municipal wireless. In some places, city governments are opening broadband access -- which they buy from phone and cable companies -- to citizens. Austin, for instance, has a couple of parks where wireless Internet access for laptops is free. In other parts of the country, cities have sponsored "wireless clouds" that cover areas much bigger than a park in Austin. The companies don't like that. People with laptops do like it. Lawmakers are trying to figure out how to write rules about it. The House's bill passed; telecom is currently a Senate problem.

There's the GOP platform, and then there's the districtState Rep. Martha Wong, R-Houston, voted for a constitutional amendment banning marriages of same-sex couples, and that measure, part of the Texas Republican Party's platform, left the House State Affairs Committee on the way to the full House. But her district includes a large and active gay and lesbian population, and she issued a rationale for her vote as she cast it, saying she only voted for the legislation after it was amended, as she put it, so as to allow civil unions. "I believe the institution of marriage should be maintained only between one man and one woman. But I cannot allow us to write blatant misunderstanding and discrimination into the Texas Constitution by banning civil unions as well," she said. She also quoted President George W. Bush, who was talking about federal legislation at the time: "I don't think we should deny people rights to a civil union, a legal arrangement, if that's what a state chooses to do."

Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst named his five conferees who'll sit down with House negotiators to work out the budget.Senate Finance Chairman Steve Ogden, R-Bryan, will lead a group that includes Republican Sens. Kip Averitt of Waco and Robert Duncan of Lubbock, and Democrats John Whitmire of Houston and Judith Zaffirini of Laredo.

Including a board we've never heard of....Gov. Rick Perry named four people to the Texas Credit Union Commission: Gary Janacek of Temple, president and CEO of Scott & White Employees Credit Union, who will chair the commission; Thomas Butler of Deer Park, president of Centrifuge Services and Diesel Fuel Maintenance Services; Pete Snow, a private invester in Texarkana who lost a House race to Rep. Stephen Frost, D-Atlanta, last year; and Barbara Sheffield of Sugar Land, president and CEO of Members Choice Credit Union and the only re-appointee in the bunch. For director spots Lower Neches Valley Authority, Perry named Steven McReynolds of Port Neches, president of Groves Equipment Rental Co.; Sue Cleveland of Kountze, president of Cleveco Construction Co.; Kathleen Thea Jackson of Beaumont, public affairs manager for Exxon Mobil Corp.; and Woodville Mayor Jimmie Ruth Cooley. Jeff Austin III, vice chairman of Austin Bank in Tyler, is Perry's pick for a slot on the Northeast Texas Regional Mobility Authority. The governor reappointed four members of the State Board of Nurse Examiners: Deborah Bell, a financial advisor from Abilene; Dr. Blanca Rosa Garcia, an RN and a professor at the Department of Registered Nurse Education at Del Mar College in Corpus Christi; Beverly Nutall of Bryan, an LVN who works at University Pediatrics Association; and Dr. Linda Rounds, an associate professor at the UTMB School of Nursing at Galveston. Nothing against the practitioners, but we had no idea there was a Texas Board of Professional Geoscientists. There is, and Gov. Perry named three folks to it: Y. Lynn Clark of Dallas, principal geoscientist with LCA Environmental, Inc. and president of Pertect Detectors, Inc.; Glenn Lowenstein of Houston, president and senior project manager of Terrain Solutions, Inc.; and Kimberley Robinson Phillips, a Houston lawyer and the only reappointee of the three.

And now, Speaker Tom Craddick has named the House's five conferees who'll sit down with Senators to negotiate a budget.Appropriations Chairman Jim Pitts, R-Waxahachie, will head the House delegation. He'll go in with Republicans Dan Gattis of Georgetown and Lois Kolkhorst of Brenham, and with Democrats Vilma Luna of Corpus Christi and Sylvester Turner of Houston. Before the conferees were named, the House voted down an attempt by Rep. Jose Menendez, R-San Antonio, to "instruct" the negotiators to hold their ground on a teacher pay raise in the budget. That wasn't even close, dropping on a 94 to 51 vote.