DALLAS, June 24 (UPI) -- Time is winding down for Texas Gov. Rick Perry to call another special session this year to address the state's school-finance crisis.
If a constitutional amendment is required on taxes or gambling, legislators must act before Aug. 25 in order to get the measure before voters in November. Otherwise, the issue will probably wait until next year's legislative session.
Now a scheduling problem has developed that could anger some Democrats the Republican governor will need to pass school-finance reforms. The 30-day session could conflict with the Democratic National Convention July 26-29 in Boston.
More than 30 Democratic legislators have plans to attend the convention, most of them as state delegates, The Dallas Morning News reported. No similar conflict exists with the Republican National Convention, which meets Aug. 30-Sept. 2 in New York.
Robert Black, a Perry spokesman, said Thursday the governor would call a session at the appropriate time.
"The governor will not be boxed in by a political convention, whether it be Republican or Democrat," he said. "If the leadership has come to a point where the issue is ripe and something can get done, the governor will call a session. If that time does not come, than he won't."
Perry wants a consensus of leaders on a plan before he calls a second session, and two committees are currently working on a package. The first session ended May 13 without any agreement and weeks of wrangling in the GOP-controlled Legislature.
Black said the governor is encouraged by recent reports from the study committees.
"The governor feels that we are moving the ball forward down the field and he's optimistic," he said.
Legislators are under pressure to reform the state's so-called Robin Hood financing system because of high property taxes and complaints from wealthy school districts that are required to share their tax revenues with less-wealthy districts.
The complaining school districts have also filed lawsuits that are about to be tried, which is another ticking clock to some legislators, although a few have said they might as well just wait to see what the court does at this point.
Perry may find a way to sidestep the potential conflict with the Democratic National Convention because he badly needs some Democratic support despite the GOP control of the Legislature.
Democratic help will be needed to muster the two-thirds vote for a constitutional amendment and probably also basic school-funding legislation, according to Cal Jillson, a political science professor at Southern Methodist University in Dallas.
"This is not something that can be done with narrow partisan majorities because there are so many divisions running through the Republicans," he said. "They are going to lose some Republicans, and they have to pick up some Democrats."
The most volatile issue is funding. Perry and most legislators want to lower property taxes, but they have to make up the revenue loss somewhere. Texas has no state income tax, and most Democrats oppose an increase in the 6.25-percent state sales tax.
Republican leaders oppose a state income tax, which has been considered the dangerous third-rail of politics in Texas for years. Perry is opposed to any major tax increase.
Democratic Sen. Eliot Shapleigh, a member of the funding committee, was prompted to write a letter to the co-chairman of the panel this week setting out his opposition in detail.
Shapleigh said the sales tax is regressive and Texas leans too heavily on it. In fact, he wrote, when combined with the property tax, Texas has the fifth most regressive tax system in the nation.
"Fairness requires that significant potential sources of revenue, such as income, should not be insulated from the state's tax collections and that taxes on individuals should consider important factors, such as ability to pay," he said. "If the mantra is that an income tax is off the table of possible solutions, then based on these principles of fairness, any attempt to increase the sales tax should also be off the table."
In the first session, Perry's package of property-tax relief and funding measures failed after he refused to back an expansion of the business-franchise tax. Another revenue measure to expand video slots to racetracks and tribal casinos also bit the dust.
"I look forward to continuing our work in the coming days until we have developed a plan that achieves our goals of ensuring educational excellence, eliminating Robin Hood, cutting and controlling property taxes and preserving our state's strong job-creation climate," he said.
Most observers expect Perry to be more cautious about securing a clear consensus from legislative leaders before he calls a second session this summer, and he may have to compromise with legislators on tax revenue-raising measures in order to deliver on his promise of property-tax relief for Texans.
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