Of Cabbages and Kings
by BOB BARTON
You ain’t seen nothin’ yet!
The 120-day legislative session failed miserably – not solving the most serious public school financial problem since the Gilmer-Aiken reforms of the mid-20th century. Then our governor called an immediate special session that got underway yesterday.
Enraptured by the attention fostered by national pundits who prefer to over report the machinations of “goofus” presidential challengers Donald Trump, Sarah Palin and Rudy Giuliani, Governor Rick Perry will set the new legislative agenda. That doesn’t bode well for citizens who are more concerned about the educational and economic well-being of Texas than they are about the personal ambitions of any politician, regardless of their party allegiance.
In the first legislative round we applied band-aids and spent way too much time addressing social issues and not doing much about settling the vexing educational and economic issues that continue to threaten our state’s very being.
Legislators failed miserably to do a decent job on most of the legislation that involves its constitutional duty – to reapportion the makeup of the House, Senate and State Board of Education.
The revamping of the 15 member State Board of Education’s election districts zipped through both houses without much of a fight. SBOE remains controlled by a majority that alleges they are Republicans. But with a few exceptions – like former State Senator Tom Ratliff – most SBOE members tend to be “flat earthers.”
Voters in the state won’t get much help from these folks when it comes to the nitty gritty educational decisions that must be made over the next few years. Viable educational leadership won’t spring from this group.
The House Redistricting settlement treats Hays County fairly. We are linked to Blanco County, with only about 11,000 citizens while we have more than 157,000. We’ll be the horse and they will be the cart. If redistricting were handled in Texas by a non-partisan commission as is done in an increasing number of states, we would probably have a legislative district all to ourselves, since we have adequate population for such a decision. But as the big guy in the grouping, we really can’t squawk.
Incumbent Republican Jason Isaac will be the favorite, but not overwhelmingly so.
On the other hand the State Senate’s decision to cut Hays County into two parts is prima facia evidence that those folks, be they good or bad at their job, shouldn’t be asked to design any sort of chamber, even the old fashioned kind that sat under the bed.
At the beginning of the year State Senator Jeff Wentworth, a Republican who generally marches to his own cadence, will continue to represent the western half of the county, while Senator Judith Zaffirini will be the majordomo for three northeastern precincts (the folks who live near Niederwald, Uhland and the vast area east of Interstate 35 between those towns) and another seven precincts in San Marcos that make up Commissioner Debbie Gonzales-Inglesbe’s district.
Zaffirini is a Laredo Democrat, a longtime incumbent and a good senator. Our complaint is with the arrogant senate committee which had the audacity to pass this change without a single public hearing. You can argue that we will have two pretty good senators instead of one. But you can also correctly declare that the change was made for reasons that have nothing to with good government.
The Senate majority (this year it is dominated by the Republicans but similar acts have occurred when the Dems were in control) made the move to protect some other Republican senate nominee in south Texas whose chances of winning might be threatened if Zaffirini were put into a county closer to home.
A purely political act, it would not be proposed by any redistricting committee not controlled by party politics instead of good common sense. Under the Civil Rights Act of 1960, the new map must face Justice Department clearance. But it will probably skate through that survelliance. However it is prima facie evidence of political chicanery and would not be tolerated if we hadn’t long ago been shell-shocked into letting politicians of all stripes feather their own nests instead of putting self-interest ahead of that of the general public.
Meanwhile, our county commissioners court is charged with redistricting itself based on the census figures that show the Interstate Corridor with three times the population of the hill country portion of our county. Our folks, at least initially, are taking a much better approach to this important matter than the folks at the state level.
A decision will need to be reached by early fall. More on this important matter soon.
