Twelve {"Super Wealthy" Texas) Districts to Benefit Most under {Perry's} Education Plan

AUSTIN - Twelve "super wealthy" school districts stand to gain the most from Gov. Rick Perry's school finance proposal to overhaul the current share-the-wealth school finance system.

Perry's plan would attempt to equalize funding to all public schools by allowing each district to keep local residential property tax revenue, eliminating the so-called Robin Hood school finance system, while the state collects and redistributes commercial property tax revenue statewide.

But, in an estimated 12 of Texas' 1,039 school districts, the residential property wealth is so high, those schools would be able to operate with substantially more funds than the rest of the state with lower tax rates on homeowners. Under Robin Hood, those districts are forced to give money back to the state to redistribute to other schools.

"There are approximately 12 of those, what we call super-wealthy districts, that would most likely be out of this system," Perry said. "How we deal with those ... I think what's important here is that we try to cover the vast majority of the children of the state of Texas."

Perry estimated that the 12 super-wealthy districts represent less than 2 percent of the state's total school population. The governor's office did not provide a list of the super-wealthy districts.

A Texas Supreme Court decision has upheld that Texas schools must have equitable access to funding.

"The greater the inequity you propose, the greater the chance the Supreme Court will strike it down," said Scott McCown, the former state district judge whose decisions helped shape the current school funding system.

"Nobody knows exactly where that line is, but this would be a huge amount of inequity and it would grow over time."

Perry has touted his plan as 98 percent equitable - an improvement from the current estimates that as much as 85 percent of students are not in an equalized system. Super-wealthy districts are not included in Perry's numbers.

Under the current share-the-wealth system, those 12 districts account for millions in property tax revenue that is redistributed to the rest of the state. That money would now stay in the districts.

Rep. Dan Branch, a Republican from Highland Park, said he was concerned that the plan would not pass court scrutiny.

"That's not a good solution if we went down there, spent all this time and huge effort and within six months a judge could say we still have to" equalize the super-wealthy districts, Branch said.

McCown said super-wealthy districts could have political clout far greater than the number of votes in the districts.

"They can give themselves great schools and give themselves low property taxes with no incentive to make sure the state has adequate money to send other districts," he said.

Perry has said he will call lawmakers back to Austin this month to address the school finance issue, but has yet to announce a date. Leaders in both chambers of the Legislature have said they'll consider Perry's plan, but neither have endorsed it.

Lawmakers want to rid the state of the so-called Robin Hood school finance system, which depends heavily on property taxes, while lowering the property tax burden now shouldered by homeowners.

In the plan Perry laid out last week, reduced property taxes would be replaced by money from a combination of sin taxes and by closing loopholes in the motor vehicle sales tax and the franchise tax. Perry's "constitutionally linked" tax roll, in which residential and commercial properties are taxed at different rates, has been unpopular among state business leaders and in the Legislature.

It's bad enough the government steals their money at gunpoint. It's even worse that the money will be distributed among those who have not been victimized by the state's extortion.

And the property owners, as usual, have no say in the matter. Sad.

I back the Gov's plan, especially that unmentioned part about capping home appraisals to 3% a year. The current 10% a year cap is abusive at best.

That said, who here really believes that any school district would voluntarily reduce property taxes no matter how much money they have? One thing about a bureaucracy is that there is no limit to how much of your money it can spend. You have to come at the bureaucrats in large numbers with pitchforks to get lower taxes.

You have to come at the bureaucrats in large numbers with pitchforks to get lower taxes.

I'm ready to do that.

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