http://amarillo.com/news/local-news/2013-03-02/statewide-property-tax-idea-floated

If I were wearing a hat at the moment, I’d take it off and tip it to state Sen. Bob Duncan, R-Lubbock, who’s taken a courageous step toward making the state system of school financing more fair and equitable.

He’s going to file a bill to create a statewide property tax to pay for public schools, replacing the local property taxes that homeowners and business owners have to pay.

I’m wondering now if the Legislature is going to seek to stop this idea from becoming law by proposing a constitutional amendment to require a vote of all Texans before if becomes law. Can’t happen? Yes it can. Legislators did that very thing back in the late 1980s to prevent a state income tax from occurring in Texas.

Duncan’s idea would almost resemble a state income tax in that it would be applied across the state. One of Duncan’s West Texas colleagues, state Rep. John Smithee, R-Amarillo, told my pal Enrique Rangel he doesn’t believe Duncan can muster the support in the Legislature for a statewide property tax, which also would require a constitutional amendment. Thus, Duncan needs two-thirds of all legislators to sign on … just to put the issue on the ballot this November.

What’s interesting – to me, at least – as that this idea comes from a West Texas Republican. Duncan has never been associated with the more radical wing – the tea party wing – of the GOP. He’s a centrist, moderate, clear-thinking, legally trained lawmaker who routinely rises to the top of lists that identify legislative superstars.

But what also is clear is that the mish-mash system of school financing has to be retooled into something that makes sense. State courts keep ruling this property tax system to be in violation of the Texas Constitution. It isn’t fair to so-called “property poor” school districts. They lack the funds to provide a quality education to their students; Amarillo and Canyon, sadly, fall into that category of school districts that suffers under the current system.

If nothing else, Duncan’s proposal is going to put a lot of legislators on the record either in support or opposed to the idea of overhauling the state school finance system. I’ll be waiting with bated breath to see what his Panhandle colleagues decide.