Grading Texas

No sooner had the special legislative session come to a merciful end than the nanny-nanny-boo-boo duet started whining. That would be Gov. Greg Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick. Call it a trio if you want to throw in Sen. Paul Bettencourt, the Patrick clone who also wailed away the session’s demise.

The Legislature had adjourned, but kindergarten was still in class.

All three were upset that the House majority, led by the adult in the room, Speaker Joe Straus, had killed a large chunk of Abbott’s and Patrick’s right-wing session agenda, including the despicable bathroom bill, private school vouchers and several undemocratic proposals that sought to impose their own ideological will over the local control decisions of city governments.

They also whined, of course, about the failure to pass an alleged property tax “relief” bill, Senate Bill 1, which the governor had designated his top priority of the session. Senate Bill 1, however, was a hoax. It wouldn’t have cut anyone’s taxes by a dime. Abbott knew that, Patrick knew that and so did Bettencourt. But they still are trying to mislead Texans.

All the bill would have done would have put tighter, arbitrary limits on the abilities of locally elected city and county officials to raise the revenue necessary to hire police officers and firefighters, ensure clean water and provide other essential public services that Texans depend upon every day.

The Legislature did have an opportunity to actually lower property taxes during the session, and Straus and the House majority tried to do that by passing a bill to increase state funding for public schools by $1.8 billion. Increasing state funding for education is the only way to lower property taxes in Texas because property taxes now account for most of the money used to support public schools, a fact that Abbott, Patrick and their allies continue to ignore. Patrick’s Senate allies gutted the House bill.

The state now pays only 38 percent of the public education budget, and that figure will continue to fall as long as Abbott and Patrick et al continue to pass the buck and ignore their constitutional responsibility to adequately and equitably pay for public education.

Bettencourt, the SB1 sponsor, predicted Texas taxpayers will be “furious” over the bill’s failure. He, Abbott and Patrick blamed the House and Straus, which offered the Senate a watered-down version of SB1 that Patrick found objectionable.

Baloney.

Most taxpayers, at least those who are paying attention, are beginning to recognize the Abbott-Patrick-Bettencourt ruse for what it is, a way to pass the blame for their own failures. All taxpayers have every reason to be furious about that.

Abbott and Patrick are lashing out at Straus with the obvious intent to paint a right-wing target on him in next year’s Republican primary.  Texas can ill-afford to lose Straus as speaker, but Abbott and Patrick obviously are more interested in advancing their own ideological agenda than strengthening Texas’ future.

“Elections matter,” Abbott said.

They certainly do. And that’s why Texans now have a governor and a Senate majority that continue to neglect school children, educators and taxpayers. Voters need to start doing better.

Gov. Greg Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick want Texas voters to believe their hearts ache over the size of your local property taxes, but don’t believe them. These guys are not the solution. They – and legislators who think like them – are the problem.

As The Texas Tribune article linked below makes clear, property taxes are high because state school funding for public schools is too low. State funding for schools is too low because leaders like Abbott and Patrick refuse to invest adequate resources in education, preferring to pass the burden to local taxpayers.

Citing figures from the Legislative Budget Board, the Tribune article by Ross Ramsey notes that the state’s share of public education costs has dropped from about 45 percent 10 years ago to about 38 percent now.

“Had legislators and budget writers kept the state’s contribution at 45 percent, local school districts across Texas – and their property taxpayers – would have spent $18.6 billion less over that decade than they actually did,” the story points out.

A major contributor to that extra $18.6 billion burden on local taxpayers was the $5.4 billion cut in school funding from the state in 2011, for which Patrick, as a member of the legislative majority, voted. Also remember that a huge chunk of the $18.6 billion has been sent to school districts where the money wasn’t collected under an inadquate and outdated Robin Hood school finance law that Abbott, as attorney general, defended in court.

And, during the regular session this past spring, both Abbott and Patrick resisted efforts, initiated by Speaker Joe Straus and the House, to tap into the $10 billion Rainy Day Fund to increase school funding. Straus is trying again during the special session, but so far Abbott and Patrick are resisting.

The governor and lieutenant governor instead are trying to provide property tax “relief” by putting new limits on the ability of city and county governments to raise property taxes for their residents’ needs. They are deliberately ignoring the real property tax problem and their role in creating it.

Abbott’s and Patrick’s version of property tax “relief” is kind of like Abbott’s version of an unfunded teacher pay “raise.” Both are designed to deceive.

https://www.texastribune.org/2017/08/02/analysis-no-texas-legislature-isnt-lowering-your-property-taxes/