Christine Kidd McFarland took a $30,000 pay cut to return to teaching. The Sinton Elementary School teacher works a second job to make ends meet. Rachel Denny Clow, Corpus Christi Caller-Times


Texas' top three state government leaders say they have done what they said they were going to do — improve and increase public school finance and deliver property tax relief.

Did Gov. Greg Abbott, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and House Speaker Dennis Bonnen keep their promises?

Overall, it appears so. The state will increase its share of public school financing by $4.5 billion, including $2 billion more for teacher salaries, and will use state funds to pay down local property taxes by $5 billion.


Even if you're skeptical, based on bitter experience, that politicians ever keep their promises, you can embrace Thursday afternoon's big announcement with cautious optimism. Don't forget that your schools needed a big bump and your property taxes have been rising so fast because your state government has been failing you for years. But they did some good this time.

Take, for example, the $5 billion to offset property taxes. It will do that. And for the property-rich school district, it'll mean a welcome reduction in the amount they have to give up to help poorer districts.


Two things worth noting: 1) this is a one-time thing with no decision on what to do next time, and 2) did you notice that they gave more to property tax relief than to education? They promised the opposite and didn't deliver, and advocates for public education took note of that.

Whether that bothers you may depend on what's more important to you — your tax bill today or your children's tomorrows (or other people's children if you don't have kids). Either way, this is your money. We'd have directed more of it to education.


No. Pay more attention to how high they filled the education glass than how it compares to the other one. The per-student allocation rises $980, from $5,180 to $6,160 — the first increase in four years. And this plan includes all-day pre-K, which will be of benefit not only in preparing our kids for the future, but also in helping parents balance their work and parenting duties now.


The property tax plan, in practice, is more of a slowdown of increases than an actual reduction. The plan includes a 2.5 percent cap on annual increases for school districts and a 3.5 percent cap for other local governments. Theoretically they can increase taxes by more, but it would trigger an automatic rollback election. In practice, even if local voters were to support a bigger increase, the election day would come later than the state-mandated deadline for a local taxing entity to approve its budget and tax rate. See what they did there?

More: Can you trust the Texas Legislature to reform property tax? This can help you decide

You might be happy about these new firewalls. Mayors and county judges throughout Texas who have to figure out how to deliver clean and safe water, maintain roadways and parks and hire and pay emergency first responders are not so pleased. This being Texas, most of these local officials are fiscally conservative, tax-hating Republicans. But they're also the ones left holding the bag tossed to them by the Legislature's funding decisions.


Our big three declared their big victory on the Thursday before the Monday that the 2019 session of the Legislature comes to an end. Conveniently, there's no time left to address how the cities in a fast-growing state are supposed to meet the growing demands of fast growth. They only left time to celebrate.

Should you celebrate? We think so. If your expectations were realistic, they've been exceeded.

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