School finance bill quickly clears Texas Senate

[plumbob]

http://www.star-telegram.com/2011/06/03/3126831/school-finance-bill-quickly-clears.html

AUSTIN -- Wasting little time in dealing with the dominant issue of the fledgling special session, the Republican-led Texas Senate voted 19-12 to pass a revived revenue and school aid package that had been felled by a Democratic filibuster days earlier.
The nontax revenue measure, which is essential to balance the $172.3 billion two-year budget passed during the final days of the regular session, includes $3.5 billion in savings, much of which comes through a brief deferral in state payments to school districts. The integral school finance component enables the state to implement $4 billion in reduced funding to school districts over the next two years.
<snip>

"Through use of rainy-day funds and an end to corporate tax giveaways, we have offered repeatedly to add $4 billion back into public education, but those in charge have refused twice the opportunity to fully fund public education," Davis said. "It is clear that they would prefer to leave options on the table, which is clearly out of touch with the priorities of Texas families."


Read more: http://www.star-telegram.com/2011/06/03/3126831/school-finance-bill-quickly-clears.html#ixzz1OHyDY0Z1


The Repubs have gotten everything they want. Now Texans will have to pay. Will Texans make these bastards pay at the ballot box next time? My hands are clean. I have never voted for any state official now in office.

[onestepforward]

1. The consequences of putting education on the back burner

This is from a 2005 article, but it is still pertinent.

http://southernstudies.org/2005/08/toyota-reveals-limits-of-great.html

-snip-
The Japanese auto giant announced that it was going to bypass offers of hundreds of millions of dollars in "recruitment incentives" (corporate subsidies) from several Southern states, and would instead set up shop in Ontario, Canada, which was offering much fewer give-aways.

The decision to head north was an embarassment for Southern states eagerly competing to lure Toyota, on several levels. Not only did they lose a trophy job-creator for their state. But the reason Toyota gave for the move was especially damning:

"The level of the workforce in general is so high that the training program you need for people, even for people who have not worked in a Toyota plant before, is minimal compared to what you have to go through in the southeastern United States," said Gerry Fedchun, president of the Automotive Parts Manufacturers' Association, whose members will see increased business with the new plant <...>

Several U.S. states were reportedly prepared to offer more than double subsidy . But Fedchun said much of that extra money would have been eaten away by higher training costs than are necessary for the Woodstock project.

He said Nissan and Honda have encountered difficulties getting new plants up to full production in recent years in Mississippi and Alabama due to an untrained - and often illiterate - workforce. In Alabama, trainers had to use "pictorials" to teach some illiterate workers how to use high-tech plant equipment.

-snip-
But now companies are waking up to the limitations of locating in a state that cares more about handing out tax breaks than investing in its people.

Have the Republicans learned anything from this? Hell no. Their ideology of refusing to learn from mistakes, belligerent stubbornness to change direction and desperate clinging to their failed policies will harm Texans for years to come.

No need to wear shades here. Our future is not bright.

[Melissa G]

2. "No need to wear shades here. Our future is not bright. "

Amen.
My hubby was remarking that every time the Lege went into session, he was demonstrably worse off. If money was all we were losing that might be tolerable, but we are losing our children's futures as well.

[onestepforward]

3. My heart goes out to all of our wonderful teachers and professors.

Sorry to hear about your husband. I can't imagine trying to deal with an already cut-to-the-bone budget that is now cutting away the bone too. It is deeply saddening.

[Melissa G]

5. Thanks. We are okay. Others have it so much worse.

:hug:
My kids report that teachers in their schools are losing their homes because both of them teach and one is losing a job. Morale is in the toilet.
When I hear about money going to a freeway in Denton, or gaming or another tax loophole for the rich, I want to just scream at these idiots sitting in the capitol bldg about how shortsighted their priorities are. Education first or we have no decent future.

My husband is in the arts. The Lege threatened to flatline the Texas Commission on the Arts. I think the have just cut them 50% so far. We will be tighter, but fine. One daughter has graduated. Thank Goodness! The things that make school interesting to our other child are being gutted. What the Lege is doing to health care and education and arts and so much more is deplorable.

[onestepforward]

7. 50% is a big cut.

I looked at the Texas Commission on the Arts website to learn about what they do. It's a lot! Art tourism has potential to be a big revenue generator for Texas. Besides New York and L.A., Santa Fe, NM is a big magnet for art tourists. Texas needs to be on the list too. Lots of talent here.

My husband and I have a teeny tiny art business and we fully appreciate the arts. So many benefits from art! When children, in particular, are exposed to art, it aids them in their development and can increase their IQ. The list goes on and on.

Best wishes to your remaining child in school and to all of Texas' school children.
:hug:



"Without art, the crudeness of reality would make the world unbearable." ~George Bernard Shaw

[Melissa G]

10. TCA generates $4.3 billion in tourist revenue for the State.

We are also losing half of our NEA matching funds with this cut.
The agency itself is being slashed from 16 people to 10.

Sad stuff all that. Here are some talking points in case you feel inspired to comment to your Lege critter: http://texansforthearts.com/downloads/TFA2011-Legislative-Talking-Points-Leave-Behind.pdf

[onestepforward]

13. Will do! Thanks! n/t

[onestepforward]

4. Democrats try to eliminate tax breaks, to no avail

http://blog.chron.com/texaspolitics/2011/06/democrats-try-to-eliminate-tax-breaks-to-no-avail/

As the Texas Senate took up a plan for cutting $4 billion from what public schools would receive under current law, Democrats again fought unsuccessfully to add more money to education by eliminating tax exemptions.

Sen Wendy Davis, the Fort Worth Democrat whose filibuster against cutbacks forced the special session, lofted a favorite target for elimination: a break for high-cost gas, which she said would yield $1.2 billion for Texas.

Before it was tabled 18-12 (with one present, not voting), Davis said, “By saying ‘no’ to an amendment like this, we are saying to the community of Texas, we are saying to the school children and the schoolteachers of Texas that our priorities are to continue to allow corporate tax exemptions … We are going to prioritize creating and allowing and extending exemptions like this over the interest of funding public education in Texas.”

The Senate by the same vote tabled a modified version of the proposal by Sen. Rodney Ellis, D-Houston, that would have eliminated what he calls the “high-cost gas loophole” if the price of gas reached $6.50 per mcf for a three-month stretch.

Citing figures that indicated this was unlikely to happen, Ellis called it a “very conservative” way to send the message that “we value the education of our chldren above a tax break.”

Sen. Mario Gallegos, D-Houston, offered an amendment to reinstate the inheritance tax that was torpedoed 19-12. He said his proposal only would affect 1,000 Texans and while he didn’t have an updated revenue estimate, the last one that was done showed the state could get $236 million.

[sonias]

6. You can't say we don't try

Senator Davis has been fearless. I think she knows this is her last harrah. She will never win another term with the gerrymandering of 2011.

:loveya: Senator Davis. Fighting to the end.


Gas tax breaks over the needs of our kids. :(

[onestepforward]

8. Senator Davis has been great

along with many other Democrats trying to do the best they can. Their efforts are appreciated!

[nkt35500]

9. +1

[plumbob]

12. Yes, she has been wonderful! Surely sometime, somewhere, this is

going to do her some personal good.

I hope so.

[sonias]

11. Public schools about to take a backseat

San Antonio Express-News 6/4/11
Public schools about to take a backseat

AUSTIN — The late Lt. Gov. Bob Bullock, that master of manipulation, could shame a political panderer into silence with a dark glance or a curt comment. Once, when a bloviating senator began lecturing a private caucus about how his voters expected him to cut the state's budget, Bullock interrupted:
“How many of you were sent here by your voters to destroy public education?” he barked. “Raise your hand.”

Nobody did.

Say what you will about Bullock, that serial husband, recovering alcoholic, flawed scoundrel of a politician. He stood and fought when it mattered.

Bullock disdained empty political gestures, so I wonder how he would assess the filibuster by Sen. Wendy Davis, D-Fort Worth, that forced the Legislature into special session. Davis' actions carry many risks, but give her credit for alerting exhausted, distracted lawmakers that they were voting on a school finance bill that fundamentally altered the state's compact with its schools.

As Rep. Scott Hochberg, D-Houston, pointed out, the massive overhaul of school funding had not received a single committee hearing.

How many of you were sent here by your voters to destroy public education? Really a very good question for those a-holes with their sites set on doing the very same thing this year. :mad:

[Avalux]

14. What ballot box? With electronic voting and redistricting,

we're ensured Republican rule through eternity.

[thanks_imjustlurking]

15. Bingo. nt