Unfortunately, the weather looks bleak in the long-term forecast. The Special Session was never about public education or school finance. It was always about one thing...cutting property taxes. That's what looks like happened here. Y'all know how much I hate policy analysis (doing it, not reading it) so I won't even try to go through the bills and tell you what I've discovered. There are smart people that do that for us. We just ought to pay attention to what they find out.
For example, Vince at Capitol Annex paints us the picture of yet another spectacular failure by our Lege. The honesty of Carter Casteel makes you shudder when she says, "We are just so lied to," she said. "We're being told, 'I'm going to fill your left pocket' and while you're sitting there asleep, they're going to take it out of your right pocket." [SAXN] In the very same article, Rep. Haggerty (R-El Paso) notes he voted for HB1 even though it's a "bad, bad bill." Stunning, isn't it?
The rush to do something outweighs the motivation to do something right. We aren't suffering from incompetence or evil agendas, we are suffering from laziness.
What should have been done? I don't know, but I bet y'all have real and good ideas that nobody listened to up there. I would be willing to forgive the June 1 deadline coming and going and requiring some sort of emergency action if we could have been sitting in the gallery watching courage and action and bold leadership before our very eyes. Instead we watch a line of people standing up to proudly shout out their indifference.
Pitiful. Once again, the Texas Legislature and Governor Perry have let us down. Thanks for nothing.
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