Now that the Texas Supreme Court has provided guidance on the school finance system, a fix must be crafted that addresses the constitutional problem identified. The specific deficiency flagged by the court is that the current system contains what is tantamount to an unconstitutional statewide property tax. The key to this finding was a lack of "meaningful discretion" available to many local school boards to approve tax rates below the $1.50 property tax cap and still meet the educational mandates required of them.


To fix the problem, school districts must be provided a realistic ability to set tax rates below a statutory cap. The Court set a deadline of June 1 of this year to have a plan adopted that allows meaningful discretion in setting these tax rates.


The working assumption is that about 15 to 20 cents of tax rate discretion would be meaningful. Providing 15 cents of local discretion works out to about $1.6 billion on a statewide basis.


I stress that the legislation to address meaningful discretion should also include substantial reductions in local school property taxes. While the property tax rate itself was not an issue in the Court's opinion, it is clear to me that these taxes are too high. I believe their reduction needs to be part of the school finance reform package.


According to expert testimony given to the Texas Tax Reform Commission by Ted Cruz, Texas' Solicitor General, there are five options available that could be used to address the meaningful discretion question.


Just because these are available options doesn't mean I support them. As I describe the five options for providing meaningful discretion, I will offer my thoughts on which have potential and which ones I cannot support.


Option One: Pass a constitutional amendment to allow a statewide property tax.


This would admittedly negate all future tax equity court challenges relating to the inability of property-poor school districts to raise comparable amounts on each penny of school property taxes as districts with higher property values. However, this option would also require the support of a two-thirds majority of the Texas Legislature to be placed upon the ballot and would have to be approved by the voters.


John Sharp, chairman of the Texas Tax Reform Commission, has stated that he will not recommend any plan that requires voter approval because this realistically couldn't be completed before the June 1 deadline. The two-thirds approval margin and election requirement combine to make this particular option one not likely to be given much consideration.


Option 2:  Pass fundamental reform of the system by moving away from reliance upon property taxes altogether.


While I favor significant property tax reductions, my concern is that an income tax is being touted by various advocacy groups as the best option for a total replacement. I do not support an income tax, period.


Option 3: Raise the ceiling by increasing the property tax cap.


I will not support this as an option. School property taxes are too high already and raising the cap means they would go even higher. Lowering the cap is what I support.


Option four


This is a policy that I can support. I voted for school district paperwork reduction legislation in the last regular session and believe we can do more to streamline our requirements.


Option 5: Buy down the floor by giving school districts additional money.
: Lower the floor by reducing mandates on school districts.

I support this one as well. The root cause of our current school funding problem is that the ratio of state to local funding has dropped too low. The State of Texas has to be willing to put more money into public education, and not just because it addresses the Court ruling.


We need to do it because it is in the best interest of our public schools, local property tax payers, and kids needing a quality education. Children are 25 percent of our population – but they are 100 percent of our future.