Echoes of the Past for Governor and Gambling in Texas

Austin, TX, American-Statesman ^ | 05-10-04 | McNeely, Dave

[Theodore R.]

Monday, May 10, 2004

Consider these ingredients:

The governor, who once opposed the idea of gambling to raise money for the state, comes out in favor of it.

A tax bill is taken apart on the House floor by restive members.

The Senate is called upon to try to clean up and perhaps cure the school finance mess, while the courts stand ready to act.

That was in 1991. But it seems like it's happening all over again.

In 1991, Democrat Ann Richards was governor. Though she'd earlier spoken negatively about a lottery, she was backed into endorsing it in the 1990 gubernatorial primary by then-Attorney General Jim Mattox. (His consultant, James Carville, had used the same tactic with success in Kentucky and Georgia.)

Richards also became convinced that Texans wouldn't allow other efforts to raise money for education and other matters until a lottery had been tried.

The lottery failed to get the two-thirds House vote needed, 90-56. But after the House members treated the tax bill like birthday kids bashing a piñata, Richards got over the 100-vote mark when the only other option was another penny on the sales tax.

Voters approved it, 64.5 percent, and it has since added more than $10 billion to the state's coffers.

Is this 1991 again?

The governor — Republican Rick Perry — said before the opening of last year's regular legislative session that "any bill that expands gambling will have a short life span."

Though he spurned Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn's suggestion 13 months ago to legalize slot machines, Perry now endorses it.

His "short life span" prediction could still be correct. Although a majority of House members put slots back into a proposed constitutional amendment, two-thirds was necessary. And the gambling loaded up the measure to the point that it helped add to its overwhelming defeat, 26-119.

Perry had said he would call a special session on school finance once legislative leaders agreed on a plan. But then he put forth his own plan and called a session anyway. Then, on the eve of the House meeting to consider its bill, Perry came out against a payroll tax, one of its key ingredients.

Legislative leaders were irked, to say the least. The payroll tax's sponsor, Republican Jim Keffer of Eastland, disgustedly put Perry's plan on the floor for a vote. It lost unanimously, with 126 votes against it, 15 "present and not voting" and not one vote for it.

So much for Perry's leadership.

There is a growing suspicion in the Legislature that Perry called the special session simply for show, in hopes it would blow up and he could blame the legislators.

Senate presiding officer David Dewhurst, flanked by most members of the Senate on Thursday, said that despite Perry's undermining and the House's feeble attempts, senators will meet as a committee of the whole to try to find a school finance solution.

What if they do and Perry doesn't like it?

"If the governor doesn't agree with us," said a newly independent Dewhurst, "he can veto it."

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Dave McNeely's column appears Thursdays. Contact him at (512) 445-3644 or dmcneely@statesman.com.