Folks who want to spend the state's surplus on school tax cuts are meeting arguments that the surplus is already used up.

People who want to finance tax cuts and replace the corporate franchise tax with a new business tax are meeting arguments that the surplus ought to be used first.

Some lawmakers resist the idea of fixing school finance without getting some reforms in education along with all the money stuff.

And there's a faction that doesn't want to do anything about school finance unless there's some new money in it for teachers.

That's just the legislators. All kinds of stuff is getting passed around and talked about outside the Pink Building, from sheets to figure out what a tax bill would look like, to petitions to bring teacher pay and per-student spending up to national averages, to pleas for ever-so-slight adjustments to the deductions in the tax bill. You name it.

But the thing is holding together, so far. House Speaker Tom Craddick and his staff has been briefing members and trying to get a feel for what they're willing to do. Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, who's in the position of waiting to see what the House will do on taxes, is doing the same, though less formally.

Gov. Rick Perry is marketing the thing. He and Democrat John Sharp — the sometimes buddy, sometimes rival who led the panel that drafted the plan — are touting trade group support for the bill, working editorial boards and civic clubs, and they've hired someone to raise money to pay for the promotional effort, whether that turns out to be direct mail or TV or whatever.

Alternatives are starting to surface, although criticism of the tax bill has been muted. The state's hefty surplus is attractive to lawmakers who'd like to start the property tax relief but don't want to vote for new taxes, and all three of the state's top leaders are pushing the notion that the money isn't really available for education.

Craddick is discouraging use of the surplus, according to members who've been through his sessions, and the handouts he's giving them. (You can get a copy in the Files section of our website, at www.texasweekly.com/documents.)

One sheet is an assessment of how much of the money in the state's piggy bank is available for tax relief, starting with $4.275 billion and subtracting all but $45 million for state obligations that haven't shown up in the appropriations process yet. Page two is an explanation — provided, apparently, by the governor's staff — of the proposed business tax.

The argument is that hurricanes, textbooks, Medicare, tuition revenue bonds, and money for employee and teacher retirement funds will eat up all but $1 billion of the surplus and that the rest is needed to pay back money squirreled into the current budget by delaying payments from the last day of a budget period to the next.

At some point, that becomes an argument against the Perry-Sharp bill, which requires $1.4 billion from the surplus to balance. Like most government budgeting, there's a little Alice in Wonderland thrown in: The surplus money isn't available, except when it is.

On the Senate side, after a fumble over income taxes, there's some talk of consumption taxes. One idea is to leave the sales tax rate as it is while expanding sales taxes to services not now taxed. Politically hazardous exemptions like funeral services and newspapers would be left out, but service taxes could bring in a lot of money.

Sales taxes are more attractive to some conservatives because they're more transparent — customers see the tax. With a gross receipts tax, the cost gets buried in the price of the product. On the other end of the political spectrum the concern is about the regressivity of sales taxes — they take more, proportionately, from the poor than from the rich. Leaving the rate alone and taxing some services, however, is less regressive. A lot of services are invisible to most consumers anyway, like consultants, or architects. The notion is that some Democrats might be persuaded.

But tax bills have to start in the House; the Senate can't mess with taxes until they have a bill in front of them.

One more idea looking for traction: There's a theory on the Senate side of the building that Gov. Perry can't write an agenda for the special session that both includes school finance and excludes education reforms. As we understand the argument (which will fall to the lawyers and the schemers at some point), school finance requires changes to funding formulas. Those formulas are in the education code, and once you let lawmakers into that area of state law, you can't keep them from taking up other education matters.

A Foot in Both Puddles

Rep. Warren Chisum, R-Pampa, sent a little thrill through the Pink Building a couple of weeks ago, suggesting lawmakers should lower local property taxes with money already collected from taxpayers rather than raising taxes. Now he's modified that position.

The state should first escape a court judgment that the local school property tax is illegal, he says, and that can be done by using some or all of the state's $4.3 billion surplus. He also says he wants to replace the state's corporate franchise tax.

Read that with current events as a filter: Chisum is endorsing the tax bill touted by Gov. Rick Perry and former Comptroller John Sharp, and he's sticking with the idea that probably has the best chance of undermining that very same tax bill.

Chisum says the House ought to start the special session by passing a bill that would temporarily satisfy the courts. He'd do that by using $2.8 billion of the surplus to reduce those taxes by 17 cents (most school district tax rates are at or near the state limit of $1.50 per $100 in property value).

Then, he says, they should work on the $5.9 billion plan baked by Perry's Texas Tax Reform Commission. It includes a new tax on business receipts (companies could choose to deduct their costs of goods sold or their employee compensation), a $1 increase in cigarette taxes, an increase in smokeless tobacco taxes, and it would use about $1.4 billion of the surplus.

What would be the incentive to pass a tax bill after the courts' problems are solved by spending some surplus money? More tax relief, he says. The bill put together by Sharp and the other tax reform commissioners would lower taxes 17 cents the first year — just like Chisum's bill — and would add 33 cents in cuts the second year. Districts would be allowed to raise their rates — that local control over tax rates is a key part of the court rulings — but Texans would potentially have their school taxes cut to $1.

Meanwhile, Rep. Bill Keffer, R-Dallas, is giving succor to the small government advocates in and out of government, saying the new business tax is a bad idea and that the Legislature ought to use the surplus to cut rates and to cut other state spending to finance those tax breaks after the surplus is used up.

Keffer, part of a panel assembled by the Texas Public Policy Foundation, said he views the surplus as an overpayment of taxes; he wants the state to give it back to taxpayers. He told the mostly sympathetic crowd that he's against the Perry-Sharp plan because it gives government a new revenue source he doesn't want to give it: "We have to expect that it would probably go up."

Though he was deferential to Perry and Sharp, he starts in the "No" position. "The only thing permanent about this proposed solution," he said, "is the tax."

Keffer and Sen. Steve Ogden, R-Bryan, both said lawmakers should try to find a way to limit increases in local school taxes without running afoul of court orders to give the locals "meaningful discretion" over their own taxes.

Without DeLay

Members of Congress are generally less important to Texas politics than to national politics and with the exception of redistricting, that's been true of Tom DeLay. But he played big in Texas redistricting and in the Texas legislative elections that preceded it, and those efforts led both to a great triumph for DeLay and to his downfall.

DeLay created a political action committee — Texans for a Republican Majority — to help take over the Texas House for the GOP (the Senate was already in Republican hands). In the 2002 elections, after TRMPAC and other groups targeted more than a dozen races — seven close ones in particular — they won the House. That new Republican majority elected Tom Craddick as the first Republican speaker since Reconstruction. And, in fits and starts, that new majority drew congressional maps that flipped the partisan alignment of the Texas delegation to Congress and solidified the majority that DeLay headed in the U.S. House.

In the last stages of that map-drawing exercise, DeLay — who had also been involved, quietly, behind the scenes — came to Austin to close the deal. Gov. Rick Perry was out of the state, and Craddick and Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst couldn't push the last pieces into place. DeLay did a round of shuttle diplomacy between the two sides of the state Capitol, and the maps were complete. A panel of federal judges blessed the results, the elections were held, and DeLay's goals were met.

But his troubles started right away. U.S. Rep. Chris Bell, D-Houston, was unseated in his new district, but before he was out of Congress, he filed ethics complaints against DeLay that began the majority leader's decline in Washington. In Austin, complaints from Texans for Public Justice about the conduct of the 2002 elections caught the eye of prosecutors. An early sign of weakness appeared in the 2004 election, when DeLay won another term but only got 55 percent of the vote. He ran almost ten percentage points behind George W. Bush in that congressional district — a sure sign that his support was eroding even among Republicans.

Prosecutors and grand juries in Austin zeroed in on TRMPAC and then on DeLay and a handful of political associates. They were particularly interested in corporate money that apparently was used to help candidates in seven races. Corporate and union money can't be used directly in elections, and TRMPAC's treasurer, Bill Ceverha, already lost a related civil suit on that topic. DeLay and two others were indicted and face criminal charges. In Washington, meanwhile, scandal swirled around lobbyist Jack Abramoff and, in part, his ties to DeLay and to current and former aides to the congressman.

Opponents were emboldened. Former U.S. Rep. Nick Lampson of Beaumont — one of the Democrats unseated by DeLay's redistricting effort — moved to CD-22 to run against DeLay. The incumbent drew three opponents in his own primary. And former U.S. Rep. Steve Stockman said he would collect signatures to get on the ballot against DeLay as an independent.

DeLay told Time and the Galveston County Daily News — the publications he chose for his resignation announcement — that his polls showed his chances of reelection were in jeopardy. Rather than risk a Republican seat in Congress in a referendum on him, he said, he wanted to get out of the way to let another Republican run.

Without him as a foil, chances for the Democrat and for other challengers shrink in what DeLay and others say is solid Republican territory. It could dry up fundraising for Lampson, who was outpacing DeLay in the money race before the resignation announcement. Don't count Lampson out, though: His fundraising to date would make him a formidable candidate even if it slows now that DeLay is out of the contest.

His effect on elections in Texas was usually negligible, but his notoriety promised to shake Republican trees far outside his own congressional district this year.

DeLay's decision should buoy other Republicans who were, in effect, answering for the former House majority leader's alleged sins. Coattails work in both directions, and Republicans all over Texas were having to talk about him, defend him, and gently ease away from him. His departure could change the dynamics in races that seem unrelated, like the one in Waco — where Democrat Chet Edwards is near the top of the GOP's national congressional hit list. For Republicans elsewhere, it helps change the subject. Voters might not be talking about DeLay, or ethics, or Jack Abramoff, come November. That'd be a plus for the GOP.

DeLay said he wants to focus on helping Republicans and his own charities from a spot outside of Congress. But he still has the Texas charges pending, and the Abramoff investigation ensnared another former top aide to him at the end of March. Deciding against reelection frees him to defend himself in court without simultaneously defending himself before the voters in CD-22.

The Smoke-Filled Room

It's easy to get off the ballot under Texas law: Either take a bus or get hit by one. Unless he dies or is incapacitated, Tom DeLay has to move out of Texas to get his name off the ballot, and to resign. The race for his spot on the ballot is already well under way.

DeLay says he'll declare himself a resident of Virginia — a state with a personal income tax, no less — when he resigns. DeLay, who won the GOP nomination in last month's primary, would be disqualified and Republicans in his district can then get about the business of putting someone else on the ballot to face Democrat and former U.S. Rep. Nick Lampson and possibly, former U.S. Rep. Steve Stockman, who's gathering the 500 signatures he needs to get on the ballot as an independent running for non-statewide office.

The district includes parts of four counties: Brazoria, Fort Bend, Galveston, and Harris. GOP precinct chairs from each of those counties will elect one of their number, and those four designees will meet to pick DeLay's replacement on the ballot. If they lock up and can't make a decision, the ball goes to the 62-member State Republican Executive Committee.

Names in the hat so far include Tom Campbell, who came in second to DeLay in the GOP primary, Harris County Judge Robert Eckels, Houston City Councilwoman Shelley Sekula-Gibbs, Sugar Land Mayor David Wallace, and possibly, state Reps. Charlie Howard, Robert Talton of Pasadena and Martha Wong of Houston. Stockman, who served one term as a Republican, is ineligible for the party's nomination because he didn't vote in their primary last month. State Sen. Kyle Janek, R-Houston, says he's not interested in a run for Congress, since he has three little kids at home.

The precinct chairs choose their candidate for the November ballot, and that's who'll be running against Lampson and Stockman. They have until early September to name someone.

The law allows for another election before that. Gov. Rick Perry will have to call a special election to replace DeLay for what's left of his term. The Guv's got two options: call an election on the next uniform election date or call it an emergency and set a relatively quick election. DeLay says he'll stay in office until next month; the next uniform date after that is in November.

If Perry calls it an emergency, there will be a special election between now and November. The winner of that affair would serve until January, when the winner of the November election would take over. And the special election, whenever it is, will be open to all comers of all political persuasions. The local party people have an option, too: They can name their candidate before an emergency special session or wait to see who wins it.

But after mapping it out, Perry decided not to call an emergency election, telling reporters at a press conference on his tax bill that he won't call a special election before November except in the unlikely chance that DeLay quits before the end of this week. April 7 is the last day for a resignation to force a May election. Perry could call a special election in the summer or fall; that would give the area representation, but it creates a political muddle.

The first idea out of the gate was to get somebody on the ballot so the area would be represented during budget votes next fall. A spokeswoman for Perry advanced that idea, as did Texas GOP Chair Tina Benkiser.

But after thinking about it, Republicans grew concerned about a special election, since the Democrats have settled on a candidate — Lampson — and they have several people talking about the race. In a special, Lampson would likely get all of the Democratic votes while Republicans split their support into factions. That splintering could put Lampson into Congress for the rest of the year, increasing his fundraising abilities and allowing him to run as an incumbent.

Option Number 2 also presented problems: It's possible that a Republican could win a special election while losing in the "little election" before the precinct chairs. That would put one Republican in office for the rest of the year and a second on the ballot — another split that Lampson might be able to exploit.

A Succession of Republicans?

Try out this scenario, from Republican consultant Allen Blakemore of Houston: If Robert Eckels (a Blakemore client) decides to run for Tom DeLay's spot as the Republican nominee in CD-22, he'll be giving up his reelection bid as Harris County Judge.

That would leave local Republican Party officials with the job of replacing their nominee on the ballot with another Republican. There's no Democrat in that race, so that Republican's appointment to Eckels' ballot position would be tantamount to election as the top official in the state's biggest county. If it's someone like, say, Harris County taxman Paul Bettencourt (whose name has also been in the mix as a possible DeLay replacement), there'd be another round: Someone would have to be appointed to serve out the remaining two years of his term before they'd face voters.

Political Notes

Cheri Isett will take Rep. Carl Isett's place in the House during the special session. The Lubbock Republican is in the Navy Reserve and was called to Iraq and appointed his wife to fill in for him. They run an accounting business together, and also home-school their kids; for Cheri Isett, that could be a reasonable basis to hope for either a long session or a short one.

• House Democrats want the Texas Ethics Commission to reconsider its decision on gifts. The TEC ruled that Bill Ceverha was right when he reported receiving a check -- without reporting the amount of it -- from Houston homebuilder Bob Perry (the two men later told The Dallas Morning News that it was a $50,000 check, and that they'll report a second check for the same amount in a few weeks). And Rep. Lon Burnam, D-Fort Worth, filed suit to get the courts to push TEC to require disclosure of check amounts.

• Republican Drew Darby filed the latest lawsuit of the primaries, contending Rep. Scott Campbell, R-San Angelo, zoomed over the line with mailers and radio spots accusing the challenger of being a lousy father and husband, among other things.

• Former Texas Supreme Court Justice Steve Smith has filed suit over the results of the March primaries, which he lost to Justice Don Willett, an appointee of Gov. Rick Perry. Smith is questioning vote-counting irregularities in Tarrant and Gregg counties and also wants the courts to give him a peek at the Texas GOP's election records.

• With all of the votes counted — and recounted — Nathan Macias was the winner over Rep. Carter Casteel, R-New Braunfels. Macias, one of five candidates backed almost exclusively by Dr. James Leininger of San Antonio, got to the finish line 53 votes ahead.

• Lorraine O'Donnell, who lost to Rep. Pat Haggerty, R-El Paso, by 105 votes, didn't report a late $75,000 contribution from Leininger that allowed her to close the race with television ads. The El Paso Times reported she didn't file a required notice with the state ethics commission; the top fine for that sort of thing is treble damages, or $225,000. O'Donnell told the paper she opposes Leininger's pet cause: publicly financed vouchers for private schools.

• Take Gina Parker out of the running for chair of the Republican Party of Texas; she says she'll instead pursue a "leadership role" with the national Eagle Forum. Between that and Nate Crain's earlier decision not to run, it's starting to look like Tina Benkiser will get another term in the office without a serious challenge.

• It's on the website of the Texas Association of Business, and that outfit even sent out a press release touting it, but their form for figuring a business' taxes under the Perry-Sharp plan was done by the Texas Taxpayers and Research Association. References to TTARA are omitted on the TAB version. It is darned useful, though, and you can get a copy by clicking here.

• Republican House candidate Alex Castano got 100 percent of the votes on the Texas Railroad Commission: all three commissioners endorsed his campaign. He's running against Bill Welch, who lost a very close race to Susan Combs when the Agriculture Commissioner was first elected to the Texas House in 1992. Combs isn't on the endorsement list, but her husband, Joe Duran, endorsed Castano. Welch is leading easily with trade and lobby groups, most recently adding the Texas Civil Justice League and TEXPAC, the political action committee affiliated with the Texas Medical Association.

• Department of (forehead-slapping) Corrections: Rep. Jim Keffer is from Eastland, which is 70 miles from Weatherford, where we had him located in a recent issue. How embarrassing. Sorry, sorry, sorry.

Political People and Their Moves

Eric Bost, who headed what was then called the Texas Department of Human Services, is President George W. Bush's choice for U.S. Ambassador to South Africa. Bost is currently an undersecretary at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the nomination has to win a nod from the Senate.

Gov. Rick Perry appointed two Aggies and a lawyer to the Texas State Board of Veterinary Medical Examiners, the licensing agent for vets. Janie Allen Carpenter of Garland and David Wayne Heflin of Mission are both vets (and Aggies), and Cynthia Diaz of San Antonio is the deputy general counsel for Mission City Management.

Perry named Connie Sefcik-Kennedy of Austin to the governing board of the Texas School for the Deaf; she's a state employee at the Department of Assistive and Rehabilitative Services, and a member of the school's Alumni Association.

Railroad Commissioner Michael Williams won an appointment to the National Coal Council, which advises the U.S. Secretary of Energy.

Deborah Ingraham, after ten years as an administrative law judge for the State Office of Administrative Hearings, is the new director of regulatory and legal affairs for the Texas Electric Cooperatives.

Austin American-Statesman reporter Ken Herman — now in Washington after a long run in the Capitol press corps — won election to a seat with the White House Correspondents Association. Ever heard him complain about issues in a race? The big item for his group is... "the upcoming remodeling project."

Quotes of the Week

U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay, in Time: "This had become a referendum on me. So it's better for me to step aside and let it be a referendum on ideas, Republican values and what's important for this district."

Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle, in a written statement on DeLay's decision to resign from office next month: "Tom DeLay's political status has nothing to do with the criminal charges against him. This changes nothing."

Democratic consultant Glenn Smith, quoted in The Dallas Morning News on the relations between Tom DeLay and the religious right: "I'd be surprised if he was accepted by authentic people of faith. He's done nothing but manipulate and use these people for his own power. It'd be like putting Blackbeard in charge of the Navy."

Attorney Howard Wolf, who served on the Texas Tax Reform Commission with former John Sharp, introducing Sharp at a public forum: "John has been elected to — or not elected to — virtually every office in the state."

Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, in the Houston Chronicle on the Perry-Sharp tax plan: "In a perfect world, I think I'd rather see a tax that's based upon income. Earn money, pay something. You don't earn money, don't pay anything."

Dewhurst, a day later, in a written statement: "I have always opposed a business or personal income tax..."

Sen. Steve Ogden, R-Bryan, on all the alternatives: "I don't have a favorite tax."

Rep. Bill Keffer, R-Dallas, on the Perry-Sharp plan: "It's like sending government to Golden Corral so they can go through the line five times... The only thing permanent about this proposed solution is the tax."

Rep. Charles "Doc" Anderson, R-Waco, quoted by the Waco Tribune-Herald on the difficulty of solving school finance: "If we had a panacea, we would certainly vote it in."

Texas Court of Criminal Appeals Judge Charles Holcomb in the Austin American-Statesman, on campaigning: "I never ask anybody for money. If I ask attorneys for money, well, then, they might be wanting favors. I just feel uncomfortable with it."

Democratic Senate candidate Barbara Ann Radnofsky, talking about her opponent — retired Universal City attorney Gene Kelly — with The Dallas Morning News: "Kelly's name has really had a tremendous effect. People think the guy is somebody."

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Texas Weekly: Volume 22, Issue 40, 10 April 2006. Ross Ramsey, Editor. George Phenix, Publisher. Copyright 2006 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.

Rep. Senfronia Thompson, D-Houston, is running for Speaker of the House and said she has filed the legal papers and will begin collecting pledges from House members right away.In a press release announcing her candidacy, Thompson attacked House Speaker Tom Craddick's administration, saying bipartisanship in the House has disappeared, that members of both parties "have been punished for voting their districts and their consciences," and accused the Midland Republican and his supporters of defeating members who voted against publicly funded vouchers for private schools. "I can no longer stand by quietly and watch such damage be done to this institution without complaining loudly and vigorously," she said in a press release. A spokeswoman for Craddick, Alexis DeLee, said he has already collected enough pledges of support to win reelection to the House's top office. "She's entitled to her opinion... but we already have the votes to win," DeLee said. She said Craddick has collected pledges from "more than 110" members of the House for reelection at the beginning of the regular session in 2007. Craddick's term runs through the end of the year -- the House starts its business every two years by electing a speaker. But the House also has the power to pull down a speaker, moving to "vacate the chair" and then electing someone else to preside over the chamber. No speaker has been openly challenged since Gus Mutscher in the early 1970s. He went out on the wave of the Sharpstown bank stock scandal, which resulted in the election of a huge number of new members in 1973. One of them was Senfronia Thompson. Thompson, who sent a press release with the news, couldn't immediately be reached for questions about it.

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Here's the text of Thompson's announcement: A Woman Seeks More House Work/Thompson Announces for Speaker of the House Rep. Senfronia Thompson (D-Houston) has filed papers declaring my intention to run for Speaker of the House. Thompson confirmed that she will begin collecting pledge cards for Speaker's race. Mrs. Thompson is the first woman to seek the top House office. Thompson is the longest serving woman and longest serving African-American in Texas Legislative history. She and former Speaker Pete Laney are the only remaining House members of the Reform Class of '73, the state's largest freshman class ever, who were elected following the Sharpstown Scandal. That class ushered in a wave of reforms on open records, open meetings, ethics and women's rights. If elected, I would be the first speaker from Houston since 1939. Harris County makes up one-sixth of the Texas House. "I promise that I will serve the House in a bipartisan manner, allowing my fellow members to vote their districts, their hearts and their consciences. The celebrated Bipartisan nature of the Texas House came from Speakers allowing members to vote their districts. Thompson said that the 150 House Districts are all different, and each member should be free to vote in the best interest of their district. Only when the membership is free to vote for their constituents will the House function properly again and be able to solve big issues like school finance. "In addition, I also ask that my fellow members join me in working with Lt. Governor Dewhurst and the Senate to craft fair and balance legislation that will treat all children of Texas fairly and give them a better shot at the future. Also, I would extend this treatment to our Texas taxpayers," Thompson continued. Representative Thompson stated that her decision to run for Speaker is based on her personal experience during the past three and half years. Bi-partisanship has disappeared and the result has been harmful not only to our schoolchildren and taxpayers, but to the House as a whole. Republicans and Democrats in the House have been punished for voting their districts and their consciences. Some Republican colleagues have been defeated by the Speaker and his supporters for voting against a voucher system that would do injury to their own school districts, Thompson pointed out. "I can no longer stand by quietly and watch such damage be done to this Institution without complaining loudly and vigorously," Ms. Thompson reiterated. " I urge my fellow members, Democrat and Republican, to join me to restore dignity, fairness, balance and progress to the House of Representatives. The legislators who preceded us and those who will follow us deserve to know that in 2007, the House will declare a clear, loud "NO" to partisanship and Big Lobby power and said yes to the voters and children of Texas." Her legislative career included such legislation as the James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Act, bans on racial profiling, drug courts, alimony, dozens of child support reforms, contraceptive parity laws, the state minimum wage, judicial reforms and numerous insurance, fraud, credit, and local reforms. Ms. Thompson is a strong believer in public education that is evident by having been a public school teacher, received an undergraduate degree and three postgraduate degrees from Texas' public universities. Her Amicus brief on public school financing was cited by the Texas Supreme Court majority when they declared Texas' old public school finance system unconstitutional. In 1977, Rep. Thompson used her own funds to successfully convince the United States Justice Department to sue Texas for discrimination in financing, hiring and admissions at Texas traditionally Black public universities, creating a fund to improve facilities, libraries and faculty.Thompson has garnered accolades and awards from the Family Law Section of the Texas State Bar, Nation magazine (one of 8 Legislators in the country), Texas Monthly (one of the Top 10 Legislators), the County and District Attorney's Association, the bipartisan Texas Women's Political Caucus (Woman of the Year), and scores of other groups. Texas Silver-Haired Legislature honored her for work on the personal needs allowance which allows nursing home residents to keep a little of the pensions or Social Security to pay for personal items like toiletries, shoes, robes, radios, reading materials and haircuts. "I am grateful to have been the recipient of the Rosa Parks Award from the Texas Legislative Black Caucus." Thompson added, "last session, one of the greatest honors I have ever received was bestowed upon me the Mexican-American Legislative Caucus, the Matt Garcia Award."

Thompson served as chair of the Judicial Affairs from 1991 until 2000 when Rep. Tom Craddick was elected Speaker; at the time, Judicial Affairs was one of the Legislature's most active committees. Previously, the committee was named the Judiciary Committee and the Rules and Resolutions Committee. In addition, she has chaired or co-chaired several other special and select committees and subcommittees. She previously served four terms on the powerful Appropriations Committee and two terms on the agenda-setting Calendars and three terms on the agenda-setting Local and Consent Calendars Committees. Additional Biographical information available upon request.

We've written about plans for a media campaign to promote the governor's tax bill, but the size of the thing is news: Political associates of Gov. Rick Perry are gearing up a television, radio and direct mail campaign with a proposed budget of $6 million. The campaign, funded at least in part with corporate money, won't be directly linked to Perry's reelection campaign. But it's being run by his top political aides.Perry and former Comptroller John Sharp -- along with a handful of political operatives -- made their opening pitch to a group of lobbyists for trade groups this week, describing the project and setting the stage for a big fundraising campaign. Lawmakers will convene next week to consider the tax bill pushed by the governor. They've got a storefront -- Texans for Taxpayer Relief -- and aides to the governor say it'll be able to take corporate contributions as well as money from individuals. They've already got their website up: www.taxpayerrelief.com. It's an election year, and Perry's on the ballot, and his face will be on at least some of the commercials, but the organization won't be directly involved in his campaign effort. That's the opening for corporate money. Perry, asked how he planned to pay for the promotional effort, told reporters to "Ask Kathy" -- referring to his press secretary, Kathy Walt. She said the proponents of the tax bill plan to use the same kind of money the opponents are using: "The tobacco companies are using corporate money to attack the tax bill." But they're not on the ballot this year. Walt and others said Perry and Sharp -- who headed Perry's Texas Tax Reform Commission -- have already been filmed for some commercials, though the final spots haven't been put together. Perry's political team is working on the tax campaign. Dave Carney, his general consultant, presented the idea at a meeting of lobbyists. He cited surveys done by Mike Baselice, the governor's pollster. David Weeks is working on the commercials; he's done Perry's work (among others) for years. Ray Sullivan, Perry's former press secretary, is in the mix, handling news pests. And Jennifer Lustina has signed on to raise money for the project.

Republican primary runoffs Democratic primary runoffs

Management had a rough night, with five candidates backed by the governor and/or the speaker defeated in primary runoffs.Barbara Ann Radnofsky knocked off Gene Kelly, who gave the new Democrat a scare in the first round of the primaries. She got just under 60 percent and will face U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison in the fall. Maria Luisa Alvarado won the Democrats' nomination for lieutenant governor, handily beating former state Rep. Ben Z. Grant in the runoff. Alvarado got 58 percent. Grant, along with Bob Gammage and Fred Head, ran on a reform message. The three were members of the Dirty 30 -- a group that bedeviled House Speaker Gus Mutscher in the early 70s and ran him out of office. Gammage lost in the primary. Head will face Republican Susan Combs in the race for comptroller in November. John Zerwas beat David Melanson in the HD-28 GOP runoff, getting 53 percent. Rep. Glenn Hegar, R-Katy, the incumbent, won a primary for state Senate and then got lucky when the Democratic nominee in that race dropped out. George Antuña beat Steve Salyer in the HD-118 race in San Antonio, the seat now held by Rep. Carlos Uresti (who won a state Senate primary against Frank Madla). Republicans are trying to flip that Democratic seat to their column, and many think their chances are better with an Hispanic candidate. Antuña got 81 percent of the votes Tuesday night. Rep. Terry Keel, R-Austin, passed on another term to run for the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. He came up short, losing to Charles Holcomb, who got almost 54 percent of the vote. Holcomb has to retire partway through his next term -- that court has an age limit, and he's approaching it. In the race to replace Keel, Bill Welch beat Alex Castano on the GOP side, getting 55 percent of the votes. He'll face Valinda Bolton, who easily beat Jason Earle -- son of the Travis County district attorney -- in the Democratic primary. Ronnie Earle's son got 33 percent. Former Rep. Ken Mercer, R-San Antonio, defeated incumbent Dan Montgomery for a seat on the State Board of Education. Rep. Scott Campbell, R-San Angelo, lost his reelection bid, pulling under 40 percent of the votes in a runoff against Drew Darby, also of San Angelo. House Speaker Tom Craddick was backing Campbell, endorsing him and appearing in the district on his behalf. Campbell was one of four Craddick candidates defeated in the runoffs. And incumbent Al Edwards, D-Houston, lost his seat in a runoff against Borris Miles. Edwards came within a hair of winning outright in the March primary, but Miles rallied in the runoff and got almost 54 percent. Edwards is one of a group of Democrats who have backed Craddick; some of his fellow Democrats were involved in the effort to knock him off. Rep. Richard Raymond, D-Laredo, held off former Webb County Judge Mercurio Martinez in HD-42, winning the Democratic primary with almost 58 percent. Rep. Suzanna Gratia Hupp of Lampasas could be replaced by a candidate backed by the Texas Parent PAC. Jimmie Don Aycock beat Dale Hopkins in the GOP primary for Hupp's spot, winning almost 58 percent. Susan King edged by Kevin Christian in the GOP primary to replace Rep. Bob Hunter, R-Abilene. She got 103 more votes than he got. Gov. Rick Perry did phone messages for Christian, urging Republicans to vote, but that fell short. Christian is a former chief of staff to Hunter (though Hunter stayed out of the race); King is one of several candidates this year who started with a stint on a school board. Another of that PAC's candidates missed, when Tan Parker squeaked by Anne Lakusta by 48 votes out of 6,356 cast. Parker had endorsements from Mary Denny, who's giving up the House seat, and former U.S. Rep. Dick Armey. In Houston, Jim Murphy beat Michael Scofield in the GOP race to replace Rep. Joe Nixon in the House. Murphy was endorsed by Nixon; Scofield, a former aide to Gov. Perry, was endorsed by radio host Dan Patrick, who just beat Nixon and two others in an expensive and noisy Senate primary.

That act following the Easter Bunny by a day is none other than your Texas Legislature, coming to Austin to work on a problem that has left them bewitched, bothered, and bewildered for years: School finance.They'll be watching a 45-day egg timer, trying to make the school finance system legal by a June 1 deadline imposed by the Texas Supreme Court. And they have the luxury of two options for increasing state funding and lowering local funding for schools: a burgeoning budget surplus and a new business tax cooked up for Gov. Rick Perry that has managed to remain alive in public without attracting the ire of most businesses. It looks like most won't attack it, and a few of them will even promote it. But it's hard to raise taxes when there's money in the till -- nobody in state office today has had the experience of passing a tax bill except when the state was in some sort of fiscal mess. And the surplus -- estimated for the moment at $4.3 billion -- might be bigger than that. The story starts on Monday, with this lineup: • Perry will issue the call -- the official agenda -- for the legislative session. He has said he'll try to confine it to school finance, shutting out distractions like education reforms, appraisal caps, and such. That ordinarily happens sooner, but by holding it back, Perry prevented lawmakers from pre-filing legislation on pet projects, and also gave other state leaders less time to look at the exact wording of the call so they could figure out loopholes. • Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn will issue a new estimate of how much money the state has available for spending. The number now is $4.3 billion, and while some state leaders contend the money is earmarked for various projects and contingencies, it's officially uncommitted. And Strayhorn is widely expected to say there's even more money available; most estimates start at $2 billion, though some think there's much more than that. She wasn't sprinkling any numbers into the conversation, but told a gaggle of reporters that the economy and state tax revenues are doing very, very, very well. We'll find out Monday whether that was foreshadowing or just a head fake. • Lawmakers will show up, call the roll and wait for presentations of the tax bill by former Comptroller John Sharp, who was appointed by Perry to head the Texas Tax Reform Commission that cooked up the tax bill. Other members of that commission will be around to help present the plan. The surplus is probably the best clue to what'll happen during the legislative session. The Perry-Sharp plan would spend $1.4 billion of that, but would leave the rest in state accounts to be spent elsewhere. They've cautioned against spending more of it. House Speaker Tom Craddick, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst and others, like the wonks at the Center for Public Policy Priorities, have been warning lawmakers that the current surplus isn't really a surplus at all, what with the state's needs in everything from education to health and human services to you-name-it. They've made some progress on that front. Some conservative lawmakers, encouraged by the Texas Public Policy Foundation, would rather attack this without a tax bill. Rep. Bill Keffer, R-Dallas, put it into words recently, saying the surplus is really a tax over-charge that ought to be refunded in the form of property tax cuts. If Strayhorn increases the amount of money available, Sharp and Perry will look like a couple of diet counselors at a fast-food convention. Even if lawmakers think a tax bill would be a better long-term solution, a big surplus will look like the irresistible #1 Combo Plate at their favorite Mexican restaurant. They'll be tempted to put that diet on hold until the regular session in January.

Add Sen. Mike Jackson, R-La Porte, to the list of people interested in the GOP position on the ballot in CD-22, where U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay, R-Sugar Land, plans to retire next month.DeLay's spot on the ballot will be filled after four precinct chairs -- one from each county in the district -- pick someone. That person will face former U.S. Rep. Nick Lampson, a Democrat, in November. As for the rest of this year, Gov. Rick Perry has said he doesn't intend to call a special election to put a temp in DeLay's job. • Democrat Chris Bell says he'd end tuition deregulation and lower tuition rates if elected; those rates jumped significantly when lawmakers left them in the hands of universities. The schools complained for years that lawmakers were capping their tuition and short-sheeting them on other funding, and when they were set free, they began raising costs to compensate. Bell says that was a bad idea that keeps some Texans out of college due to high prices. • Independent Carole Keeton Strayhorn wants to move the state's standardized tests -- the TAKS test given to public school children -- from the spring to the fall. She says that would make the test more diagnostic and says teachers could then use the rest of the year responding to the results and helping kids where they need it. • Gubernatorial appointees and their families contributed $3.8 million to Gov. Rick Perry over the last five years, according to the latest report from Texans for Public Justice. TPJ says one-third of Perry's appointees gave to his political campaign -- two-thirds didn't, which is different sort of news -- and they gave an average of $3,769. Their whole report is online at www.tpj.org. • John Courage, the Democrat challenging U.S. Rep. Lamar Smith, R-San Antonio, gets a fundraising visit next week from U.S. Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wisconsin. They're doing a "listening session" with students at the University of Texas, and then a fundraiser that evening, also in Austin.

Bill Ceverha got a clean bill of ethical health from former Judge Mike McCormick, who was hired by the Employee Retirement System to ferret through charges of ethical lapses by Ceverha, a board member. McCormick's report says Ceverha was eligible (not a lobbyist) when he was appointed to that board, that he hasn't violated standards of conduct or done anything that should disqualify him from the board, and he recommended no action be taken. The board took the report and called it done. House Democrats accused Ceverha of taking the post while he was still a lobbyist, and they said he shouldn't have accepted a $100,000 gift from Houston homebuilder Bob Perry while on the board. That gift, in two checks, was reported to the Texas Ethics Commission, but with no dollar amounts attached. After ethics commissioners looked at it and required nothing further, Ceverha and Perry owned up to the amount of the gift in The Dallas Morning News. You can read a back-and-forth on the ethics commission's decision in the Soapbox section of our website. And ERS posted a copy of McCormick's report, at www.ers.state.tx.us. • The Texas Legislature is only a week behind Congress for the number of days in session for the last two years, according to the Texas Municipal League. That's if the special session starting next week isn't extended. Since the beginning of 2005, Congress has met 238 days and the Texas Legislature, once this session is under its belt, will have met for 231 days. During the 2003-04 biennium, TML says the part-time Texas Lege met for 255 days, compared with 248 days for the full-time Congress. • State lawmakers have tried to lower the cap on appraisal increases to limit increases in local taxes. Local governments have fought it as an infringement of local control. Right now, the limit is 10 percent and an effort to lower it failed in the House last year (though it'll surely come back). The city council in Austin offered a new twist: They want the state to give them the authority to lower the cap themselves, preserving local control and leaving to local voters the question of what ought to be done. • The Children's Health Insurance Program is starting a $3 million campaign to sign kids up. Enrollment has been dropping steadily, from 322,898 in December of 292,681 this month, a decline of 9.3 percent in five months. Enrollment has dropped by more than 200,000 since lawmakers cut it back in 2003. Now the state will do radio, print, bus bench and Spanish-language TV ads to promote the program. • Put librarians back in the 65 percent soup. They weren't included in the state's initial idea of direct instructional costs, but Education Commissioner Shirley Neeley has moved them into that category. She's polishing the rules ordered by Gov. Rick Perry, who wants at least 65 percent of public education money going to instruction. Neeley will phase in the rules over three years time. • Rep. Craig Eiland, D-Galveston, wants to add full funding for the Teacher Retirement System to the agenda for the special session. TRS needs about $300 million to balance assets against expected debts, and he says it'll be easier to fix now than when the problem gets really big. He'd have the state increase its contribution to 7.31 percent of educator salaries, up from 6 percent and he says the Employee Retirement System could use a similar, though smaller fix: an infusion of $60 million in state money.

"The moral test of any society is how it treats its children." --Hubert Humphrey ``As we examine the issue of school finance, regardless of whether you believe we should invest more dollars into education or not, we must be cognizant of how we treat our children. We must find ways to spend money in a manner that directly impacts children--and what better way to do that than to invest in their teachers.There has been much conversation over linking teacher compensation to student performance recently. Teachers are our direct link to students. They provide the key to improving student achievement, and I believe we should explore ways to compensate and reward teachers. Improvement will not happen by accident, but by design. Research shows that an effective teacher can achieve twice as much academic growth from a student than an ineffective teacher. An effective teacher can virtually eliminate the achievement gap between students of different family income levels. So why is it that we pay teachers simply according to seniority or years of experience. Salaries in the private market are typically driven by the employee's effectiveness on the job. Someone who demonstrates more talent, skill, or effort is usually compensated with more pay. Professions that compensate individuals based on the quality of work produced for clients typically produce better results. Not only does the private sector reward those who do the best job, but they also compete for the best and brightest in our teaching force. Many of our best teachers leave for higher pay and opportunities for advancement that a career in teaching does not offer. We must change our system to keep these individuals in the classroom teaching our children. Many argue education is not a business and that children are not widgets. But that should not preclude us from taking lessons from business and applying them in such a way that improves how we compensate teachers. Those businesses paying market-based salaries are, after all, the competition. Two states--Florida and Minnesota--as well as many school districts, one of which is our very own Houston ISD, have recently announced teacher pay systems that link to student performance. Florida recently announced that the top 10% of teachers demonstrating student improvement will receive additional salary, while Minnesota is offering significant increases in state aid to school districts that will base at least 60 percent of teacher pay raises on performance rather than seniority. The compensation system approved by voters in Denver, Colorado, last year has received wide support for its ability to pay teachers based on their individual talents and ability to meet goals for student performance. Earlier this year Houston ISD became the largest school district in the nation to offer rewards to teachers based on student performance. In 2005, governors in 20 states proposed changes in the way teachers are paid. As the Texas Legislature takes up the issue of school finance this spring we have a golden opportunity to positively affect both the amount, and the way we pay teachers. In addition to an increase in the base pay for teachers, the Legislature should set aside a meaningful amount of money dedicated to funding pay plans in local school districts that reward teachers for student achievement. Teachers must have a voice in the development of these plans. These plans should also include multiple indicators of student performance so that pay is not based solely on one test, and both individuals and teams should be rewarded for success. Additionally, teachers with a proven record of student achievement should be offered the opportunity to advance in their career. Those "Master Teachers" can help other educators improve their craft while remaining in the classroom with students and being compensated for the additional duties. We must take the guesswork out of education. Today's technology allows us to know what works with students and what does not. We must use this information to empower our decision-making capabilities and influence the way we compensate, train, and support teachers in the field. Our focus should always be on improvement, on taking a student further along than anyone expected he or she could go. As we begin the next chapter of the school finance debate, we must remember, that the moral test of any society is how it treats its children; and never lose sight that our priority must be on our students. And that starts with getting a good education from excellent teachers. Shapiro, R-Plano, chairs the Senate Education Committee.

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Texas Weekly's Soapbox is a venue for opinions, spins, alternate takes, and other interesting stuff sent in by readers and others. We moderate submissions to keep crazy people out, and anonymous commentary is ineligible. Readers can respond (through the moderator) to things posted here. Got something to submit? We're interested in everything from full-blown opinion pieces to short bits to observations or tidbits that have escaped us and the mass media. One rule: Your name goes on your words. Call or send an email: Ross Ramsey, Editor, Texas Weekly, 512/288-6598, ramsey@texasweekly.com.

George Phenix, the publisher of Texas Weekly and the last of the three founders still involved with this enterprise, is retiring. In 1984, Phenix, Sam Kinch Jr., and John Rogers launched the newsletter to try to fill a gap between what was happening in politics and government and what was getting reported in the big papers and TV stations. Also, they wanted to make money. Rogers died, Kinch retired, and now Phenix is hanging it up. He wants to work on some writing projects and see if he can make Thursdays -- a regular deadline every week for more than two decades -- feel like any other day of the week. We wouldn't be here without him, and we wouldn't have had nearly this much fun on the trip. Barry McBee will take the in-house lobbying job at the University of Texas System, replacing former Rep. Ashley Smith, who left that gig for a private sector job in Houston. McBee, a former chief of staff to Gov. Rick Perry who is currently the first assistant to Attorney General Greg Abbott, will take the post in June. The government folk don't call these lobby jobs -- they prefer to call it legislative relations. McBee will be the vice chancellor in charge of it. He worked for Gov. Perry, Lt. Gov. Perry, Agriculture Commissioner Perry, and also did a stint at the top of what's now the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. Recovering: Sen. Mario Gallegos, D-Houston, checked out of the clinic where he went for a month to get sober. He publicly admitted his alcoholism a little more than a month ago and sought treatment. He says his doctor has given him a clean bill of health, and that he has no plan to get out of politics: "Don't stick a fork in me yet." Ray Martinez III is resigning from his spot on the U.S. Election Assistance Commission at the end of next month. Martinez, a Democrat, was appointed to the bipartisan commission by President George W. Bush on the recommendation of then-U.S. Sen. Tom Daschle, D-South Dakota. He'll return to Austin and told Bush in his resignation letter he was leaving for family reasons. Pat Wood, the former chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, and the Texas Public Utility Commission, is joining the advisory board of Airtricity, a wind energy developer with four projects in the state. Lisa Barsumian, who left Texas for New Mexico a couple of years ago, is reversing course; she'll join Austin-based Strategic Partnerships as a "senior consultant." She was a lobbyist for two decades before the New Mexico stint. Chris Hughes moves from Exelon Generation Co. to Brown McCarroll. He'll work on environmental, utilities and telecom issues for that law firm. Chris Lippincott has left the Texas Association Against Sexual Assault to join the federal lobbying, er, liaison staff at the Texas Department of Transportation Another of the former ERCOT staffers accused of directing agency money to their own companies pleaded guilty. Christopher Douglas is the fourth defendant to plead guilty; he agreed to pay $500,000 stolen from the agency and faces jail time. Deaths: James Douglass Shear, one of the state's real experts on school finance, after a long bout with throat and neck cancer. He worked for the late Bob Bullock for years before signing on with a law firm that specializes in school funding issues. He was 53.