Having a governor directly involved has made some difference in school finance, but the two halves of the Legislature are still locked up over some of the issues that doomed earlier compromises. They are closer than they were, particularly after the Senate fell on its sword on business taxes, but there's plenty left to fight over. 

A partial list of differences would include methods and amounts of compensation for teachers, caps on how much local money rich districts have to share, the percentage of school districts that have to get substantially the same amounts of money per student, whether kids should be tested at the end of each course, whether school board elections ought to be moved to November, and taxes.

In that last item — taxes — you'd have to have a separate list of differences between the upper and lower houses: increased homestead exemptions (yes, no, and how much), new property tax rates (somewhere between $1.23 and $1.30, down from $1.50), sales tax rates (up between 1/2 cent and one cent), increased alcohol taxes (yes or no), how to close business tax loopholes, and whether to raise license fees for professionals who don't pay the corporate franchise tax.

Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst says the Senate won't be considering anything coming out of conference committees until it's seen the reports on school finance and taxes. That means, with a few possible exceptions, that nothing would come out of the special session if school finance doesn't get done. "That's why we're here," he says. The asterisk is that either body of the Legislature could simply accept the work of the other body, sending it straight to the governor.

There's less than a week left in the special session. 

50% Turnout 

Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst ran into two lockups on the tax bill and cast a vote to settle one of them — his first vote ever — while letting the other die on a tie. The first killed a business tax disliked by the lobby and by Gov. Rick Perry and, probably, the House. Dewhurst's non-vote kept slot machines out of the tax bill.  

The first vote was weird for a couple of reasons. For one thing, Dewhurst cast the deciding vote on an amendment that killed the expanded business tax he himself has been promoting. And he had to go out of his way to do it, talking Sen. Mike Jackson, R-La Porte, into changing his position to turn a loss into a tie, and then casting the deciding vote. Dewhurst wasn't in the chair at that moment — Sen. Ken Armbrister, D-Victoria, had the gavel — but it turns out he can vote as long as he's in the room.

In fact, it appears at first look, that he has no choice. From the Senate Rules, we get this: Rule 6.18. If the Senate were equally divided on any question, the Lieutenant Governor, if present, shall give the casting vote. (Constitution, Article IV, Section 16).

That raises a question about the second big tie on the tax bill. Senators voted 14-14 on an amendment that would have added video lottery terminals to the bill. Dewhurst was there, but didn't vote, and the amendment died. It turns out that the state constitution trumps the Senate's rules. From the Texas Constitution: The Lieutenant Governor shall by virtue of his office be President of the Senate, and shall have, when in Committee of the Whole, a right to debate and vote on all questions; and when the Senate is equally divided to give the casting vote.

He can vote, but he doesn't have to. And when that vote took place between 3 and 4 a.m., nobody called him on it. 

Number Two, with a Bullet 

Gov. Rick Perry added limits on eminent domain to the agenda for the special legislative session, giving some oxygen to an issue that seems to have more Texans talking than the Number One issues: public education and property tax relief. The eminent domain legislation — which includes a proposed constitutional amendment along with the statutes that would implement it — is moving quickly in both houses, though each has added things that will require resolution from a conference committee.

This is a touchy subject. The current outcry stems from a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that says, in essence, that a government can use its powers of eminent domain on behalf of developers building a private project (a mall) that has a greater public value than whatever it's replacing (homes, for instance). We've talked with several legal wizards who say the ruling marks only a small change in the law; though it certainly caught the public's attention, the actual change from standing law was small. For instance, the UT Law School's Sanford Levinson says economic development has long been used to justify eminent domain seizures: "Earlier cases say the public interest is whatever the Legislature or the City Council says it is." He says the new case will probably make it easier to litigate takings of property, which will make it more expensive, which could serve as a brake on some seizures. But it's not really new law.

Nevertheless, legislatures here and elsewhere are narrowing the law. Texas already has bills in the mill that would add this to the November ballot: "The constitutional amendment to prohibit the state or a political subdivision from taking private property for the primary purpose of economic development or to benefit a particular class of identifiable individuals."

They took another step when the legislation got to the House: Texans forced out of their homes by governments looking to develop local economies would be compensated for their property, as the law allows now, but would also be entitled to the money needed to replace what they lost with a "comparable other property in the municipality." That idea was tacked on with a bipartisan but close vote; it's not in the Senate bill.

The federal court was agreeing with the Connecticut Supreme Court when it said the city had the right to condemn the properties for a redevelopment project over the objections of holdout property owners. Eminent domain has been around for a long, long time, but this case hit a nerve. On one end of this are people from across the political spectrum who think it's outrageous to let developers wreck neighborhoods to build shops, even if the shops will bring in scads of sales taxes and the developers have to pay the homeowners fair market value for their property. On the other, think of all those projects that get built by public/private partnerships in the name of economic development, like stadiums and arenas and airports and roads. Either way, it'll keep lawyers busy. If you're so inclined, you can look at the Supreme Court's opinion at Kelo v. City of New London.

While They're Here Anyway 

The special legislative session is starting to look like a regular session. Gov. Rick Perry expanded the Legislature's agenda a second time to add tuition revenue bonds and judicial pay raises to the things lawmakers can legally consider. Both issues almost made it during the regular session. Judicial pay raises — which are a key variable in figuring the retirement pay of Texas legislators — died in the crossfire of tempers between Rep. Terry Keel, R-Austin, and a couple of senators. And tuition revenue bonds — issued to build new facilities at state colleges and universities — were axed because House Speaker Tom Craddick and Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst didn't agree on how money set aside for the TRBs would be distributed.  

Perry didn't stop there. The Guv hit the reboot button to allow lawmakers to look at two more issues: Telecommunications and renewable energy.  Telecomm in particular locked up lawmakers during the session; the sponsors, Sen. Troy Fraser, R-Horseshoe Bay, and Rep. Phil King, R-Weatherford, couldn't come together on how to treat competition between phone companies and cable companies. The two industries are, respectively, sneaking into the other's camp — phones want TV, TV wants dial tones — and the Legislature is trying to regulate the fight. Cities are watching carefully to see whether statewide franchises for television erode local cable franchises and the perks that were included by the companies, like local programming and local access channels. The Texas Municipal League and the cable companies alike opposed the legislation that came out of the Senate. That's where they had their best luck during the regular session.

 Electric companies want a piece, too, as they perfect technologies that send Internet and television signals — broadband — over power lines. Houston-based CenterPoint, for example, just signed a deal with IBM to work on broadband over power line technology, called BPL for short, in a residential pilot project.

The renewable energy bill — already passed by both houses — pushes electric utilities to get a certain amount of their power from wind farms and other technologies and sets a goal for renewable energy for the whole state. It adds to local tax bases that need the money for school finance, and it's supposed to encourage companies to build enough transmission lines to get the power from the wind farms to the places where it's needed.

The Pay Scales of Justice 

The Senate sent judicial pay raise legislation — and its sidecar, an increase in legislative retirement pay — to the House less than a day after Gov. Rick Perry added the issue to the legislative agenda. A little while later, the House followed with a slightly different version. Of all the issues before the state Legislature during this special session, this was the first to pass both houses on its way to the governor's office for approval or veto.

Both versions would increase pay to $125,000 for district judges (from a base of $101,700 now), to $137,500 for appellate court judges, and to $150,000 for judges in the two statewide courts. Chief justices would get an extra $2,500. Local county officials can still supplement the state salaries, but pay for district court judges would be capped so that they'd always be at least $5,000 behind the judges on the higher courts. The state would do a report every year to show how the judges here are doing on their pay, as compared with judges in states of similar size and to lawyers in the state of Texas. That last bit means the State Bar of Texas will soon be doing a statewide survey of lawyer salaries for the report.

Sen. Robert Duncan, R-Lubbock, also folded in an amendment from Sen. Rodney Ellis, D-Houston, that adds money to the state's fund to pay attorneys for indigent criminal defendants. That, like the pay raises themselves, would be funded with increased fees paid by people going to court in Texas. That's not in the House's version, which includes some appropriations language that isn't in the Senate's. The 23 percent pay increase for judges is also a pay increase for retired legislators, and for those who, voting now, will retire later. Their retirement benefits are based on a formula: Judicial pay multiplied by .023, multiplied by the lawmaker's years of service. A legislator with 20 years on the job would get $125,000 X .023 X 20, or $57,500 per year, under the new formula. Under current law, that same lawmaker would get $46,782. Lawmakers have to serve at least eight years to qualify, and can start collecting benefits when they're 60. If they serve at least 12 years, they can draw the benefits after age 50. 

Hard Sell 

It's hard for cigarette companies to talk to lawmakers about sales they'll lose because of higher taxes, since that's one of the most popular arguments for raising the levies on smokes in the first place.  They do make the point, but move on quickly. To what? The companies are trying to slow down the tax hike by saying it's so big it will encourage smugglers to bring smokes to Texas from neighboring states with lower taxes. Phillip Morris USA says a $1 increase in the Texas tax would bring the price difference on a carton of cigarettes to between $8 and $16.50 when compared with neighboring states. And they hint that sales will drop faster than the state predicts, lowering expected state revenues.

Political Figures 

A couple of polls show Gov. Rick Perry with some weaknesses among general election and, to a much lesser extent, with primary voters. But he still looks formidable going into the March 2006 Republican primary against Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn. 

SurveyUSA is tracking how voters rate the work of the governors of all the states, and you can look inside their results for any state you choose. The results are summarized on their website.

If you click on the name of a state, you'll see how voters there regard their governor's work. Perry, by SurveyUSA's numbers, was still underwater as of last week, with approval from 38 percent of those surveyed and disapproval from 53 percent (the question being answered: "Do you approve or disapprove of the job Rick Perry is doing as Governor?"). The pollsters talked to 600 people and say their margin of error is ± 4.1 percent.

Perry's numbers were slightly better with men than with women, best with Texans between 35 and 54 years of age, better with Republicans than Democrats, Independents and "not sures," and slightly better in West Texas than in other regions of the state. His numbers were a little worse in July than in June. June's numbers were down a bit from May's. The pollsters threw in one number that's interesting, if statistically wobbly: The average governor is getting the thumbs up from 50 percent of voters and a thumbs down from 41 percent.

Separately, Austin-based Montgomery & Associates did some polling and found Perry well ahead of his only announced GOP challenger, Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn. By their reckoning, Perry has a two-to-one advantage in that contest. The firm — which works for Democrats when it's working on political stuff — polled 905 Republican primary voters during the five days ending July 1. Of that group, 54.8 percent said they'd vote for Perry in an election held now and 28.9 percent said they would prefer Strayhorn.

More than half of the voters — 50.9 percent — said they had a "generally favorable" impression of the governor; 20.8 percent gave him a "generally unfavorable" mark, and only 0.2 percent said they hadn't heard of him. Asked what they think about the job he's doing in office, the numbers tightened up: 51.9 said Perry was doing a good or excellent job and 45.8 percent said his work was "only fair" or poor.

Strayhorn left 34 percent of the voters with a favorable impression, and 20.2 percent had an unfavorable take on the comptroller; 8.5 percent said they hadn't heard of her. Her job rating was better than Perry's: 55.6 percent gave her excellent or good marks, while 22.4 percent graded her "only fair" or poor. 

Political Briefs 

Campaign finance reports have started trickling in (good results often get announced before the filing deadline, so as to avoid being obliterated by other news from other campaigns).  

Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn says her reports will show she raised $1.5 million in the last ten days of June, bringing her cash on hand to $7 million. Details, like who gave and how much, won't be available until she has filed her full report. Meanwhile, Agriculture Commissioner Susan Combs, who's running for the spot currently occupied by Strayhorn, raised $838,421, bringing her piggy bank's balance to $2.4 million. She also offered no details. The reports — and the ones you'll see after the filing deadline passes — reflect fundraising between the end of the legislative fundraising blackout on June 19 and the end of the month. Federal candidates and state candidates who weren't in state office during the legislative session aren't subject to the blackout.

• Jimmy Evans, son of former state Rep. Charlie Evans of Fort Worth, says he'll run for the House. He's looking at an open seat in Austin, where Rep. Terry Keel, a Republican, is preparing a race for the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. Evans, also a Republican, ran for the House in 1996 in his father's old district but lost to Todd Smith, R-Euless, who still holds that seat. Evans is one of several people talking about HD-47, but he'll be the first we know of to file his paperwork and actually get into the contest.

• Gina Benavides, a McAllen lawyer, says she'll run for the 13th Court of Appeals, a Corpus Christi-based appeals court that hears cases from 20 counties in that part of the state. Benavides will be running against an incumbent, Errlinda Castillo, in the Democratic primary.

• The first take on pay raises from Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn — reportedhere a couple of issues ago — was that she'd take the extra $33,000 per year included in the budget by lawmakers and approved by Gov. Rick Perry. But Perry's political office was loudly critical, saying in essence that the governor's fellow Republican isn't worth the money. She decided not to take the money after all, but did thank the governor for signing the bill that would make it possible.

Non-judicial statewide officeholders other than the governor all got raises in the new state budget. So far, Strayhorn and Agriculture Commissioner Susan Combs have turned down the money. It's a nice raise, taking them to $125,000 annually from the current $92,000. That's $33,000 a year; the average starting school teacher in Texas gets a total annual salary of $32,894, according to the American Federation of Teachers.  

• Gov. Rick Perry went on The O'Reilly Factor to defend the state's laws on child abuse after the host of that show, on a crusade to make all 50 states bring their penalties for child abduction and battery to the level of the toughest states, said the Texas laws were on the weak side. In the midst of all the interruptions that pass for conversation on television, Perry said he'd encourage the Legislature to look into it when they're back in session. They're in session now and will be for another week, as Carole Keeton Strayhorn quickly pointed out. 'Tis the season.

• Department of Corrections: The chart on close races in our last edition originally referred to 2002 elections when it should have said 2004... In some editions last week, we mistakenly put Rep. Terry Keel and Judge Robert Francis into the race for 3rd Court of Appeals in Austin. The two are running for the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. Sorry, sorry, sorry. 

Four in a Row 

Reagan Greer hung in for a week at the Texas Lottery Commission, but the agency's executive director resigned late on a Friday afternoon. Cause of death: The agency exaggerated the size of its jackpots at least four times in an attempt to boost sales. Winners on those occasions — had there been winners on those occasions — would have been entitled to lower-than-advertised winnings. Greer, a Republican who lost his bid for reelection as Bexar County's district clerk before joining the lottery, wasn't accused of making the decisions on the jackpots, but he's the head guy and took the fall for it.

The jackpot hyping was compounded by the agency's firing of its chief financial officer. Lee Deviney was let go for unspecified reasons, but the public facts lead to questions: He recently got a good job review, and he's also the guy who blew the whistle inside the agency on the jackpot inflation.

Gary Grief, the number two guy at the Texas Lottery, will be acting executive director while the search is on for that agency's fifth top boss. The agency's chairman, Tom Clowe, plans to put together a special board that will sort through resumes for a new director. And the commissioners have decided that one of them will have to sign off on prize estimates, expanding the board's role in setting policy to include some of the actual day-to-day operations of the lottery. 

Political People and Their Moves 

James Steinberg, the deputy national security adviser to then-President Bill Clinton, will be the new dean of the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas. He's replacing Bobby Ray Inman, who's been the interim dean since Edwin Dorn left the job last year. Both Inman and Dorn remain on the school's faculty.

Charla Ann King is the new COO at the Texas Racing Commission. She's replacing Paula Flowerday, who's been at the agency for years and is leaving to move to North Texas, in the agency's words "due to family commitments." King had been an aide to Texas Workforce Commissioner Ron Lehman, and worked at the State Bar and the Texas Sunset Commission.

Robert Shepard is the new chairman of the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, replacing Jerry Farrington in the middle seat. Farrington will remain on the board. Shepard, a George W. Bush appointee who was reappointed by Rick Perry, had been vice chairman. 

Trey Trainor is leaving the House — he's the chief of staff to Rep. Phil King, R-Weatherford and clerk of King's Regulated Industries Committee — to become general counsel at the Secretary of State's office. SOS Roger Williams is also from Weatherford, so there are local ties all around (Trainor is from there, too). He'll replace Ben Hanson in Williams' office.

Press corps moves: This item is ridiculously late, but Brandi Grissom, who worked for the Associated Press in its Austin bureau during the legislative session, is the new Austin Bureau for the El Paso Times. Gary Scharrer, who held that job for years, moved earlier this year to the San Antonio Express-News.

Steve Taylor, who had been doing the "Border Buzz" section of the Quorum Report, has started his own electronic newsletter, focusing on government and politics from the perspective of Texans who live and work on the state's border with Mexico. The Rio Grande Guardian combines original reporting and newspaper clippings.

Quotes of the Week 

Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst on business groups pushing the House's tax plan over the Senate's: "Golly gee. It moves a billion dollars of taxes from business onto individuals and consumers. Duh. That's kinda easy. I'd be a little surprised if, given a choice as paid lobbyists, they wouldn't think it's a better plan."

Rep. Dan Branch, R-Dallas, quoted in The Dallas Morning News on the state Senate's regular practice of working on legislation in closed meetings: "If you're meeting in a 'caucus of the whole', you're avoiding all the sunlight."

Sen. Steve Ogden, R-Bryan, on the prospects for school finance: "If the House wants to negotiate, we'll reach an agreement."

House Speaker Tom Craddick, on a Senate proposal to use money in a tobacco lawsuit settlement account for school finance: "The House side, and I think I speak across the board, is not for using one-time funding mechanisms or smoke and mirrors to do property tax relief or education funding."

Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, on the tax swap legislation: "The political reality is that we're not seeing the willingness on the part of our friends in the House to look at a serious overhaul of our tax system."

Sen. Kip Averitt, R-Waco, on expanding the state's business franchise tax to include partnerships: "Not one person is going to file a personal income tax return based on this legislation... to couch it as an income tax is not correct."

Sen. Steve Ogden, R-Bryan, on taking partnerships out of a tax bill he hoped would broaden the business tax base: "By voting on what we think is possible, we give up on what we think we should do... as the author, I am frankly disappointed."

Rep. Charles "Doc" Anderson, R-Waco, telling the Waco Herald-Tribune why he voted for a tax bill in spite of his opposition to a tax on bottled water: "It's not a cafeteria where you can eat what you want."

North East Superintendent Richard Middleton in the San Antonio Express-News: "In 1995, we tried to reform education. In 2005, the goal is to dismantle public education. This bill has nothing to do with adequately funding schools. It has to do with providing property tax relief."

Rep. Craig Eiland, D-Galveston, quoted in the Galveston County Daily News: "The last thing we need is another blue ribbon committee."

Sen. Kyle Janek, R-Houston, quoted by the Austin American-Statesman after voting against a judicial pay raise that triggers an increase in legislative retirement benefits: "I've got enough problems back home without voting for this." 

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Texas Weekly: Volume 22, Issue 7, 18 July 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.

Expect something like that last-day measure to come out in the second special session. It did clear the conference committee, after all, before getting dragged into the legislative undertow. As more people read the legislation, however, more problems turn up. The two Democrats on the Senate negotiating team -- Leticia Van de Putte of San Antonio and Royce West of Dallas -- didn't sign the conference committee's report. And while you never know for sure how the Senate would have voted in the light of day, their usual backroom talks appeared to produce a tie vote or something close to it. It's not clear, in other words, that the legislation would have passed even without the walk-off filibuster from Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston, which ended the special session. Whitmire's close frustrated the Republicans but had a certain rationality to it: Why hurry, since Perry was hauling everybody back to work on the tax bill anyhow? If they like the bill they had on Wednesday, legislative leaders could roll it out again in a new session on Thursday, give everybody time to examine it, and pass it a week or two after the originally scheduled vote. Democrats and some Republicans sniffed at several provisions of the school bill. A vote -- had one been taken in either chamber -- would have been close. House Speaker Tom Craddick told reporters he had only three votes to spare on the measure, by his count. And Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst said he had the votes, before Whitmire's filibuster. The Senate appeared to be even tighter than the House, and the bill's success would have depended in part on which senators were absent when the vote was taken. A test vote on a related measure raised the possibility that Dewhurst himself would have had to cast the deciding vote. Expect something like that last-day measure to come out in the second special session. It did clear the conference committee, after all, before getting dragged into the legislative undertow. As more people read the legislation, however, more problems turn up. Sen. Florence Shapiro, R-Plano, passed a cleanup resolution that would have fixed 29 pages worth of errors and miscues in the legislation. One would have allowed school boards to post meeting times on the Internet instead of in local newspapers, a money-saving idea that lights up newspaper publishers (in a bad way) and that lawmakers generally don't want to change. Another created an unintended cap on spending in some big school districts, like Highland Park and Dallas. The "fixes" during this second session could reopen issues that seemed settled earlier this week, so put an asterisk on all of this -- it could be subject to renegotiation. Even with those glitches, the Republicans on the conference committee -- five from the House and three from the Senate, with two Senate Democrats refusing to sign -- gave their consent to some provocative changes you're likely to see again, and soon. • They want November elections for school boards, moving those nonpartisan affairs out of the spring and into the fall. Supporters of that idea say the higher turnout will put more voters in the decision-making loop. Opponents say school boards will fall prey to partisans who are in season in November. Whitmire gave it as one big reason for his filibuster. • The legislation creates a new 65 percent rule that some school districts don't like. The basic idea is that at least 65 percent of the money spent on public schools should go into classrooms, as opposed to transportation or janitorial or food services or administration or school safety or whatever. That's been broadened to include classroom teaching outside of the basics, but some districts still don't like it and they've made sure their legislators know it. • It includes a cap on how much money the rich districts in the state have to share with the poor districts in the state. With some exceptions, those districts wouldn't have to share more than 38 percent of the money they raise locally. That cap would move if it threw equity formulas too far out of whack. Districts would be required to use the money to cut property taxes or to increase the amounts they send to poor districts, and they wouldn't be able to use the formulas to lower rates too much. They'd have to set tax rates no lower than 75 percent of the state's cap on property taxes; if the state cap was at $1.20, they'd have to tax their property owners at least 90 cents to keep the recapture protection. Even with all that, the caps increase the gap between rich and poor districts, and that gap is a key point of argument in the school finance fights in the Lege and in the courts. Some of the same legislators who say the rich districts should be able to spend more money on public education will also tell you that higher spending on public education doesn't improve it's quality. Go figure. • The legislation would make school district finances more "transparent" or easier for outsiders to examine. • Legislators have been tussling over textbooks for more than two years. In a budget crunch in 2003, they cut funding for textbooks. And while they were increasing the state budget by $22 billion this year, they still didn't fund the $295 million it would take to catch up on textbooks for public schools. That funding made it into the school reform bill, but only if the school reform and companion legislation both become law. With the start of a second special session with no changes in place, there's a better-than-even chance that some of the state's schools will start the academic year with their new materials still piled up in warehouses instead of lockers, backpacks and desks. • It would impose a state set start date for public schools, to the first day after Labor Day, a change that's been pushed for several years by amusement parks and other businesses dependent on summer crowds. They contend earlier start dates cut into their business. • It would phase in a change pushed by House leaders, testing students as soon as they finish each state-required course to see how they did. The Senate didn't include that; the legislation would start it up in the 2009-10 school year. • Teachers would get a pay raise, and it would total $500, $1,000, $1,500, or $2,000, depending on where you get your information. Legislators wanted to add $500 to teacher pay across the board. They wanted to add $500 to a "pass-through" salary (state money passing through the local district to the teacher) that was created in 2001, halved in 2003. Lawmakers count that as $1,000, since that's the original amount of the stipend and since it would disappear altogether without legislative action. Teachers count it as a promise kept, broken and kept, but it would result in them getting $500 more next year than they got last year. The legislation also would add an average of $500 per teacher in incentive pay. Some teachers would get nothing, some would get more, and it would average out to $500. Call that nothing, or call it $500. Add everything up and you get $2,000. We count it as $1,000 -- the amount of money going to teachers, for sure, they didn't get last year. Some would get incentive pay, but they'd add it to the $1,000 base. 

However you prefer to spin this -- either as the biggest tax cut in state history or the biggest tax increase in state history -- Texas lawmakers were looking at a shrunken version of what they said they'd consider "significant." More than a year ago, all 31 senators said they wanted to cut local school property taxes in half, to 75 cents from $1.50. The House, a few months later, went after its version of property tax relief, aiming at a 50-cent cut. When they broke camp on the tax bill in the last days of the special session, they were millimeters apart on a proposal that would have cut about 25 cents from local bills. And this time, when they said they were close, they really were. The deal sheets floating between the two houses showed they had agreed on most of the big elements of a tax bill. They remained apart, however, on some key issues, and neither chamber's leadership got far enough along to know whether their machinations -- all behind closed doors, a nasty habit of this Legislature -- had produced bills that would win the support of most senators and representatives. Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst wanted some things that House leaders said would kill the bill on parliamentary grounds. The Senate's proposal for a sales tax break for low-income Texans, for instance, wasn't "germane" to the bill in the House's view. A point of order from an opponent, saying the provision was out of bounds, would kill it. Both sides said they'd sign off on a 0.7-cent increase in the state sales tax, bringing it to 6.95 percent. But the Senate wanted to tie that to a voter referendum on sales taxes and homestead exemptions, while House Speaker Tom Craddick and his negotiators wanted a clean increase without any embellishments. They agreed on some big stuff and might remain in agreement. Both sides want to close loopholes left in the franchise tax by earlier lawmakers. They agreed to tax companies on out-of-state transactions where the other state doesn't have a franchise tax. They agreed to end the sales tax exemption for Internet access, for motor vehicle repair, and for some computer programming and maintenance. They'd both add $1 to the tax on a pack of smokes, ignoring an ad campaign launched by tobacco interests. They appeared to agree to put away plans to tax bottled water and to increase taxes on alcohol. They'd tie sales taxes on used cars to Blue Book values instead of using "liar's affidavits" where sellers and buyers can write down the price and base the tax on that. One of the last deal sheets floating back and forth between the House's back hall and the Senate's back hall put the new property tax rate at $1.22 -- down from the current $1.50. And it would have funded a $7,500 increase in homestead exemptions, which is worth about the same as a nickel cut in property tax rates. A rough example that doesn't take local property exemptions and such into account: The owner of a $200,000 home would see the local school property tax bill cut to $2,165.5 from $2,775. That's a little better than $50 per month in lower local school taxes in return for the higher state taxes raised to pay for it. Actual mileage may vary. 

At a joint news conference, House Speaker Tom Craddick and Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst said they've got a plan for the second special session, but they weren't willing to predict whether it would end in less than the allotted 30 days. For your calendar, draw a line starting on July 21 and ending on Friday, August 19. Some of the state's public schools will start classes before lawmakers have worked out their funding for the rest of the school year. The plan is for the House and the Senate to zip bills through the various committees without hearings or much debate, get them to the respective legislative chambers for floor votes, send them across the rotunda, lather, rinse, repeat, and then send them to conference committees for tinkering. The theory is that lawmakers have already been over this stuff and that there's no need to invite the public for testimony this time out. Several pieces of legislation were queued up for final votes during the first special session, but weren't finished because lawmakers put school finance first. That has an advantage; groups that want their own special bills -- like the phone companies that have been clamoring to get into markets now dominated by cable television companies -- are forced to lobby for school reform and tax swaps. If things are in the right order, legislative leaders get free help from expensive lobbyists. Legislators with colleges and universities at home want tuition revenue bonds to pass, and the TRBs become levers for their votes on the school stuff. Craddick and Dewhurst hope to move bills through the originating houses during the first week of the session, lining things up for resolution in or after the second week. In fact, by the end of the first day of the special session, Senate committees had finished their looks at public school reforms, telecommunications, judicial pay and eminent domain. The House's committees had already passed a tax bill, tuition revenue bonds, judicial pay, and a constitutional amendment raising the homestead exemption for local school property taxes. All of those things will go to the full Senate and House, respectively, starting on Monday. Sidebar: Craddick is skipping the usual committees this time and handing matters directly to the ten people who've been trying to get the two school bills out of the Pink Building for the last seven months. His conference committee on taxes and his conference committee on education have been put into special committees. The two bills will start there, go to the full House and then into the ether of House-Senate parley. 

The 1962 New York Mets ended their season -- their first -- with 40 wins and 120 losses. They were at the bottom of the National League, 60.5 games out of first place. They were historically inept, inspiring Jimmy Breslin to write a book titled with a quote from the manager, Casey Stengel: "Can't Anybody Here Play This Game?" What was the Texas Legislature's version of 40 wins and 120 losses? What taxpayers got for their $2 million -- roughly the cost of a special legislative session -- was a resurrection of the public school section of the state budget, which had been vetoed last month by Gov. Rick Perry, and a bill designed to promote renewable energy. Solar panels, for instance, or turbines powered by water or wind. They were promoting wind farms in west and north Texas, not at the palace of government in Austin. As for the other issues on the governor's special session agenda, Texans got bupkis. Nothing on school finance, tax swapping, or education reform. Nothing on legislation increasing judicial pay and legislative retirement. Nothing on opening telecommunications and cable television markets, or allowing data to be sent via broadband over power lines. Nothing on limiting governments' ability to force private landowners to sell their properties for economic development. But it's all back. Perry called them back to work starting the next morning and set an agenda that includes some education reform, school property tax reductions, tuition revenue bonds to fund facilities at state colleges and universities, judicial pay raises (along with their companion, legislative retirement increases), and telecommunications legislation allowing phone companies into the video/TV business. The big issue that snuck up on lawmakers after the regular session -- whether governments should be able to use eminent domain to take over land for economic development, and how -- will probably be added to the agenda when the kinks are worked out. 

Travis County prosecutors have been visiting with a steady stream of House members about the 2002 elections, asking questions about their contests that year and, more specifically, about the involvement in those contests of House Speaker Tom Craddick ad others. We don't have a complete list of who's gone through -- subpoenas apparently weren't issued to them and they weren't talking to grand jurors. Several were accompanied by Craddick's lawyer, Roy Minton. He says the questions have generally centered on how things worked in the elections and he may be the only one who would characterize it as "really kind of an entertaining deal." Minton said at least a half dozen have talked to prosecutors during the last couple of weeks, and said not all of them were from the group of lawmakers elected for the first time in 2002. One of the state reps who talked to us on the condition we left him or her out of this said said assistant district attorneys asked a lot of questions about "where checks got sent and routed and so on." That lawmaker also said many of the people in the class of 2002 -- the freshmen who were elected that year -- were being quizzed by prosecutors who "seemed to be crossing their T's and dotting their I's." Another interviewee was asked how involved Craddick got in that person's campaign, whether he was privy to campaign information like how much money was needed to complete the race, the status of the campaign, and copies of campaign plans. As we've said before, the statute of limitations runs on many of those cases between now and November, and the grand jury working on the case is in business until the end of September. Travis County prosecutors declined our invitation to comment. 

Fundraising, new candidates, old candidates, endorsements... Sen. Jon Lindsay, R-Houston, won't seek reelection to the Senate next year. That sets up a replacement contest that could draw a half-dozen Republicans. Reps. Peggy Hamric, Joe Nixon, and Corbin Van Arsdale have been mentioned, as has Ben Streusand, a self-financing congressional candidate who fell short a year ago. The elbowing has just begun, though; there could be more and different names in this thing. Lindsay was Harris County Judge for 20 years before starting what will be an eight-year run in the Senate. ? Richard "Kinky" Friedman (that's how they're putting his name on press releases these days) raised $301,471 and spent $284,554 on his gubernatorial bid during the first six months of the year. Friedman, who'll be trying to get on the ballot next year as an independent, got a $100,000 contribution from John McCall of Spicewood, and another $60,000 from McCall later on. That's his campaign treasurer. He also pulled in $61,278.43 from "merchandise sales." • Chris Bell, who plans to announce his intentions in a couple of weeks -- he's in exploratory mode now -- raised $152,653 and spent $127,593 during the first half of the year. The Houston Democrat's total includes a $50,000 contribution from Poppi Georges-Massey, listed as a Houston homemaker in the report. • Texas Republican Party chair Tina Benkiser has a race in front of her. Dallas County GOP Chair Nate Crain's interest in the race made The Dallas Morning News, and Republicans who follow this sort of thing are buzzing about it. The election isn't for 11 months, and Collin County GOP Chairman Rick Neudorff sent an email to those folks telling them to keep their powder drive. He hints in that email that there will be more entries: "I urge you to join me in stepping back and refrain from making any early commitments until all of the facts and candidates are known." • Former Rep. Dick Reynolds wants another go. Reynolds, a Republican, will be in the HD-47 race, too. He's had a number of government jobs: insurance commissioner, Texas Workers' Compensation Commissioner, executive director at TWCC, councilman and mayor pro tem of Richardson, and then two terms in the Texas House representing Richardson, Garland, and North Dallas. • Sen. Todd Staples, R-Palestine, hasn't officially declared his candidacy for Texas agriculture commissioner, but there are four people running for the seat he holds now, and the Texas Farm Bureau's political action committee -- AGFUND -- has endorsed him for the statewide post. A few days earlier, AGFUND blessed current Agriculture Commissioner Susan Combs' bid for comptroller. She's the only candidate actively running for that job, which is open because Carole Keeton Strayhorn is running for governor against Rick Perry next year. • Austin attorney William "Bill" Davidson is running for the 3rd Court of Appeals as a Republican. He's running for the position now held by Democrat Bea Ann Smith, who's not seeking reelection. He's a lawyer with Minter, Joseph & Thornhill and he's been in Austin for 49 years. Diane Henson, a Democrat, has already said she's after the same job. 

Former Rep. Dick Reynolds wants another go at the Texas House. Reynolds, a Republican, will be in the HD-47 race.  He's had a number of government jobs: insurance commissioner, Texas Workers' Compensation Commissioner, executive director at TWCC, councilman and mayor pro tem of Richardson, and then two terms in the Texas House representing Richardson, Garland, and North Dallas.  

Norval Pohl will leave his post as president of the University of North Texas next year when his contract expires. He took the job in late 2000, and told the Denton Record-Chronicle he's been at it long enough and is "losing enthusiasm" for it. Matt Matthews, a lobbyist who's run for office and worked as a legislative aide, is talking to Kay Bailey Hutchison's campaign about helping the senior U.S. senator with her reelection bid in 2006. He's not commenting on it at this point. Terry Sullivan, hired to run what at one time looked like a race for governor for Hutchison, will stay with the campaign but is stepping out of the day-to-day operations. John Neal, an assistant attorney general, is leaving that gig to be chief disciplinary counsel at the State Bar of Texas. He's a former district attorney in Young and Stephens counties and had a private practice before joining state government. Gov. Rick Perry appointed Ross Fischer of Kendalia (it's in the Hill Country, kinda between Austin and San Antonio) to the Texas Ethics Commission. He's assistant chief of the State Bar of Texas' disciplinary office and the former Kendall County attorney. Carolyn Boyle left the Coalition for Public Schools, an anti-voucher group, to start up a political action committee called the Texas Parent PAC. They're hoping to raise $250,000 to use in the next election cycle to, in her words, "elect some new legislators who are committed to support and strengthen public schools." They'll be non-partisan; their materials say they think lawmakers are underfunding and short-changing neighborhood schools. Texas Supreme Court Justice Dale Wainwright got a scare, but doctors sent him home after an overnight hospital stay saying, according to a court spokesman, that the judge " apparently experienced irritation in the pleura, the tissue sac
that lines the exterior of the lungs. It was felt to be benign and to be temporary." Doctors told him he can go back to work. Chris Cutrone is the new deputy press secretary to House Speaker Tom Craddick. He's been teaching English in Europe, but before that was an executive assistant to then-Attorney General John Cornyn. 

Sen. Todd Staples, R-Palestine, hasn't officially declared his candidacy for Texas agriculture commissioner, but there are four people running for the seat he holds now, and the Texas Farm Bureau's political action committee -- AGFUND -- has endorsed him for the statewide post. A few days earlier, AGFUND blessed current Agriculture Commissioner Susan Combs' bid for comptroller. She's the only candidate actively running for that job, which is open because Carole Keeton Strayhorn is running for governor against Rick Perry next year. 

Austin attorney William "Bill" Davidson is running for the 3rd Court of Appeals as a Republican.  Austin attorney William "Bill" Davidson is running for the 3rd Court of Appeals as a Republican. He's running for the position now held by Democrat Bea Ann Smith, who's not seeking reelection. He's a lawyer with Minter, Joseph & Thornhill and he's been in Austin for 49 years. Diane Henson, a Democrat, has already said she's after the same job.