A committee of one

Hey, remember that blue ribbon panel that Governor Perry announced last month to figure out what to do with school finance? It's been five weeks since John Sharp was named its chair, and he's hard at work talking to editorial boards around the state. What is it that he isn't doing? Holding meetings with the other members of the panel. And why is that?

Sharp, in an interview with the Houston Chronicle, emphasized that he wasn't yet speaking for the committee, whose other members still haven't been named but may be announced this week by the governor.

Well, that would be an impediment, though on the bright side it ought to make booking a meeting room easier. One does wonder why Sharp is so lonely these days, since it's not like Governor Perry hasn't had time to do other stuff.

Since Rick Perry has named John Sharp to the school tax panel, he's made a ton of other appointments:

• He’s appointed 7 members to the Texas State Board of Public Accountancy.


• He’s appointed 5 people to the Texas Medical Board.


• He’s appointed 2 people to the Texas Commission of Licensing and Regulation.


• And he’s appointed people to the Texas Growth Fund Board of Directors, the 11th Court of Appeals, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission, the Texas Small Business Industrial Development Corporation, and the Texas Economic Development Corporation.

Ah, it's just school finance. No big deal. And you know, I remember a Dilbert cartoon in which Scott Adams postulated that the collective IQ of any committee drops five points for each additional member. So maybe I'm just not thinking outside the box here.

Sharp said the committee, which will include about 12 members, both Republicans and Democrats, and mostly from the business community, won't try to write a new school finance plan or tell the Legislature how much to spend on education.

Oh, well.

Posted by Charles Kuffner on October 26, 2005 to Budget ballyhoo | TrackBack