I got those lack of consensus blues

The totally non-shocking headline says it all: Leaders' lack of consensus threatens Perry tax plan.

More than a week after the governor officially announced his plan to buy down property taxes with revenue from a new broad-based business tax and higher cigarette taxes, neither Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst nor House Speaker Tom Craddick had expressed support for the proposal.

[...]

"Here we go down this path again," said Greg Thielemann, a political scientist at the University of Texas at Dallas. "Perry's got this plan, but he's got to find a way to pass it."

"It's difficult to reach a consensus among members when you don't have the top three leaders working with the same plan," said state Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston.

Most of what's in here is not news for those who have been following this closely, but this ominous snippet at the end should make everyone involved sit up and pay attention:

Mark Trachtenberg, an attorney who represents school districts that filed the lawsuit over the funding system, said lawyers will be prepared to seek an injunction to prevent the state from making a scheduled June 25 payment to school districts if a constitutional funding system isn't in place.

The Legislature should know, he said, "The deadline is quite solid."

Tick tock, tick tock. That's the real date to mark on your calendars. If that injunction gets granted, then all hell really will break loose.

Posted by Charles Kuffner on April 09, 2006 to Budget ballyhoo | TrackBack