[CSPS] FW: Texas Impact Action Alert

[Cecelia Hawkins]

Dear CSPS,
 
Cecelia Hawkins has forwarded this email to you with the following message:


Subscribe me!
http://ui.constantcontact.com/d.jsp?p=oo&m=1011183686188&ea=csps%40philebus.tamu.edu

-----------------------------------------------------------
Please Note: You have NOT been added to any email lists.
If you no longer wish to receive these messages,
please contact cecelia_hawkins at hotmail.com.
-----------------------------------------------------------

School Finance Special Session Action Alert
Urge Lawmakers to Vote "NO" on House Bills 1 and 2




Bills on the House Floor Monday, April 24 Texas Impact recommends that you call your representative 
and urge them to VOTE NO on House Bill 1 and House Bill 2, 
which will be up for votes on the House floor on Monday, April 
24.

House Bill 1 serves up a deceptive, short-term property tax 
reduction that widens the gap between wealthy and poor school 
districts—and provides NO new money for education.

House Bill 2 would ensure that business taxes in Texas could 
not be used for education, public safety, or any other 
public program.

House leaders have adopted rules governing the debate of 
these bills. The rules state that the bills cannot be amended to 
remove or change the substantive parts of the bills--in 
other words, it's not an option for your representative to 
support the bills with changes.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
BACKGROUND

House Bill 1 would sweep currently unappropriated funds in the 
state treasury (so-called “surplus” funds) to pay for a small, 
short-term property tax reduction that would be erased by 
resulting local tax increases. The change would diminish the 
school funding equity Texas has worked so hard to achieve, 
making the state immediately vulnerable to new lawsuits.

Sweeping the unappropriated funds would leave the state short 
of funds for key state services in next year’s budget. The House 
leadership are dictating that House Bill 1 is not allowed to be 
amended to include any increased funding for schools.

House Bill 2 would dedicate future business tax revenues to 
“buying down” property taxes. This means that even if 
business tax collections are very robust in the future, the 
state couldn’t use those funds for public good--even for an 
emergency like hurricane recovery. House leaders are 
dictating that this bill cannot be amended to change the 
dedication of future business taxes.

TAKE ACTION!

Call your state representative's Capitol office and urge your 
representative to vote no on House Bill 1 and House Bill 2. Tell 
your representative that you support real school funding 
reform, including more money for schools, preserving equity, 
and property tax reductions that are funded with real new 
revenue, not a "surplus" we can't afford to fritter away.

Find Your Representative's Phone Number (or find out who represents you) - http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=5s7pzubab.0.qi68zubab.mre6txn6.3964&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.capitol.state.tx.us%2Ffyi%2Ffyi.htm

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Bee Moorhead
Executive Director
Texas Impact





-----------------------------------------------------------


This email was forwarded to csps at philebus.tamu.edu, by Cecelia Hawkins.
Privacy Policy
http://ui.constantcontact.com/roving/CCPrivacyPolicy.jsp 

Powered by
Constant Contact(R)
www.constantcontact.com


-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://philebus.tamu.edu/pipermail/csps/attachments/20060422/bfa63e8f/attachment.htm