Not really worth analyzing after all

OK, I take it back. I'm not going to bother analyzing the current House bill, which was originally supposed to be on school finance reform but which is an unrecognizable mass of tax tradeoffs that no one likes and everyone knows won't do squat to help schools. The House has passed the buck to the Senate and taken its shot at Governor Perry for his utter lack of leadership, and yet still passed this completely useless bill, though it took two votes and a lot of arm-twisting to do it. No, I'm just going to boil it all down to its essence, which is captured nicely in this quote:

State Rep. John Smithee,R-Amarillo, said the bill, if it became law in its present form, would be "disastrous for the people of Texas." But he and other Republican leaders said there wasn't enough time remaining in the session, which must end May 19, to send the bill back to committee for a rewrite.

"I'm convinced this is the only way to move the process along," Smithee said.

So it's better to pass a "disastrous" bill in the name of process than it is to take no action at this time. Tell me again why it is that the Republican Party is associated with people who call themselves "conservatives". I don't recognize anything conservative in that statement.

The Quorum Report is a gold mine of info on this session, and of course one can read the various newspaper accounts (here, here, here, here, here, and here). And one can wish that the special session will expire with nothing passing other than thirty days. By far that would be the best option right now.

Posted by Charles Kuffner on May 05, 2004 to Budget ballyhoo | TrackBack