| Henry Tatum: Legislators' failure to pass Bush reform comes back to haunt them 04/11/2001 By / The Dallas Morning News It was a rare defeat for George W. Bush, and he wasn't making any attempts to hide his anger.
As the governor of Texas, he was driving the state down a path to genuine school finance reform when the wheels suddenly came off. Months of public hearings in 1996 to find out how deeply Texans resented the outrageous school property taxes they were paying failed to win the state Senate over to Mr. Bush's new education financing strategy.
The governor and his aides were sitting in his office in May 1997 trying to figure out how senators had managed to turn his sweeping tax reform plan into little more than a meaningless gesture.
Mr. Bush was particularly peeved that lawmakers had waited until the last minute to slice, dice and downsize his measure. Several legislators had risked their political careers in an effort to right the wrongs in Texas' woefully underfunded public education plan. Now, there wasn't much to show for it.
Four years ago, Mr. Bush wanted to commit an additional $3 billion in state funds to the public school systems in Texas. He was willing to establish additional business taxes in Texas to help equalize spending and lower school property taxes.
State lawmakers chose instead to add $1 billion in savings to the education budget as an encouragement for public school systems to lower their property taxes. Few taxpayers saw any benefit.
Ironically, many political analysts believe the Texas Senate helped Mr. Bush become president of the United States. They believe he would have been labeled by Al Gore as the governor who implemented the largest tax increase in the state's history. Any campaign promises to trim the budget in Washington would have been greeted with derision from the Democratic Party.
And yet the failure of Texas legislators to adopt Mr. Bush's school finance reform plan has come back to haunt them this year. One by one, school districts are challenging the so-called Robin Hood school finance plan as it never has been challenged before.
Reacting to a Texas Supreme Court ruling, legislators adopted a school equalization plan in 1993 that forces property wealthy districts to share their tax revenue with the poorer districts in the state. At the time, the public assumed the only school districts penalized would be those on the financial level of Highland Park. Boy, were they wrong.
On Monday, the Coppell Independent School District became the latest school system to file a suit challenging the manner in which Texas funds schools. Joining Coppell in the lawsuit were the Port Neches-Groves, West Orange-Cove and La Porte school districts – hardly areas in Texas that are thought to be overrun with millionaires.
Individual taxpayers have filed suit against the Highland Park and Dallas school districts to end or greatly revise a financing system that sends their tax dollars to school systems elsewhere in the state. And at least 33 other school districts are expected to join in the fight to scuttle the Robin Hood plan.
State officials would have to be blind not to have seen this coming. When large urban school districts like Dallas or Austin start to feel the sting of Robin Hood, a challenge is inevitable. The primarily minority Austin school system is being compelled to commit $100 million to the plan next year
And a vast number of other school districts now are bumping up against the state-mandated $1.50 tax rate cap with no other revenue sources to handle spiraling education costs. Legislators could raise the tax ceiling, but that offers no long-range solution to the financial crisis.
Acting Lt. Gov. Bill Ratliff and House Speaker Pete Laney have promised to address school finance at the end of the current session. But the task is getting tougher with each passing day. In 1997, the Legislature wasn't facing the prospect of spending billions to help provide health insurance for teachers.
The state senators' backroom shenanigans in 1997 may have helped George W. Bush find the keys to the White House. But the state legislators' failure to bite the bullet on school finance reform four years ago certainly could send them to the doghouse back here in Texas.
Henry Tatum is an associate editor of The Dallas Morning News editorial page. His e-mail address is .
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