02.05.07
The Latest On Bustin’ The Cap
There’s just something about the words Sen. Ogden uses in this article, Tax relief now hard reality, that sound a little fishy. It’s all the qualifiers he uses
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Steve Ogden, R-Bryan, said he believes there’s no way lawmakers will short schools and that he hated to even bring up the prospect.
“The law mandates that the (local tax) rates go down. There is an assumption, as far as I know, but not necessarily a mandate to replace that lost revenue dollar for dollar. I hate to say that, because I don’t think there’s anybody in the Legislature that doesn’t intend to (make up the funding),” he said.
“I can’t imagine the Senate doing that (shorting schools). I think it would be more likely that we’d just lock down and go to special session.”
It almost sounds like he’s tempting, daring, threatening… What I started thinking was there would be some kind of, you know, wink-wink, we’ll bust the cap if you…say…pass vouchers. Then tonight I see QR reporting this, AVERITT AMENDMENT LINKS TAX RELIEF FOR ELDERLY WITH BUSTING SPENDING CAPS. Then I see this, Craddick expects a “normal session”. Yep, just screwin’ over the poor, the middle class, the elderly and the disabled. Just a normal ‘ol session.