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September 21, 2001
Select Committee studies school financing...
Is there a better way to pay for our Texas public schools?
Texas Farm Bureau definitely thinks so. Now, a select committee of six senators, six House members, and six people from the general public has been appointed to study the question in advance of the 2003 session of the Texas Legislature.
Lieutenant Governor Bill Ratliff and House Speaker Pete Laney charged the Joint Select Committee on Public School Finance with studying all aspects of school funding. This includes conducting a comprehensive review of the structure of the Texas public school finance system, including facilities and transportation is-sues; the method used to fund public schools; and the criteria used to determine payments to the state's 1,041 school districts.
The legislative leaders also instructed the committee to carefully consider all of the equity issues that govern public school finance and fully examine all of the revenue resources for funding public schools, including the state's property tax system.
The creation of this 18-member group is very significant. The school finance issue is expected to dominate the next session of the Legislature. In 1997, Texas Farm Bureau was heavily involved in a tax reform effort that produced a House plan that cut school property taxes in half and replaced them with about $3.8 billion in new state taxes. The legislation was defeated in the Senate.
High on the agenda of the committee will be the share-the-wealth or "Robin Hood" provisions of the current law passed in 1993, which this year will require 101 high-property-wealth districts to share their property tax money with other districts. An estimated $600 million to $650 million will be shifted to equalize funding.
Twenty percent of school districts are at the current tax rate limit of $1.50 per $100 valuation for maintenance and operating expenses. Officials anticipate another 20 percent of school districts will reach the tax rate limit in two years.
Texas Farm Bureau policy reflects the issues proposed in the 1997 Legislative session, in which Farm Bureau favored an alternative source of revenue to fund public school operations that would be more equitable and spread the tax load across the entire population rather than on property owners alone. Of primary importance is the continuation of agricultural use valuation and sales tax exemptions for all agricultural inputs, including feed, seed, fertilizer and farm machinery.
The committee is headed by the chairman of the House and Senate education committees—Rep. Paul Sadler of Henderson and Sen. Teel Bivins of Amarillo. Other legislators on the committee include Sen. Steve Ogden of College Station, Sen. Florence Shapiro of Plano, Sen. Eliot Shapleigh of El Paso, Sen. Leticia Van de Putte of San Antonio, Sen. Royce West of Dallas, Rep. Harold Dutton of Houston, Rep. Kent Grusendorf of Arlington, Rep. Scott Hochberg of Houston, Rep. Rene Oliveira of Brownsville, and Rep. Todd Smith of Bedford.
Public members appointed include Kent Caperton, Will Davis, Craig Foster, Lyndon Olson, Mark Stiles, and David Thompson.
The final report of the committee, including any recommended statutory or regulatory changes, is to be submitted to the Lieutenant Governor and House Speaker no later than November 15, 2002.
•••
Senator Robert Duncan of Lubbock has been named to chair the Senate Subcommittee on Agriculture.
Lieutenant Governor Bill Ratliff appointed Duncan to the position following the death of former Subcommittee chairman Sen. Tom Haywood of Wichita Falls. He also serves as the vice-chair of the Senate Committee on Natural Resources and is a member of the Senate Committees on Finance, Jurisprudence, and Redistricting.
