Senator Eliot Shapleigh - El Paso, Texas

The former judge who heard the original school finance court case told a Tyler audience the answer to funding woes is a personal income tax.

"What we ought to do to make ourselves all richer in the long run is a smart income tax," said Scott McCown, who now serves as executive director of the Center for Public Policy Priorities in Austin.

"What would that do for us? If we took the Kansas tax and applied it to Texas, it would raise almost $18 billion a year in revenue. You could use $12 billion to buy down property taxes, and you would have $6 billion a year in new revenue for state education," he said.

It's a common misconception that a state income tax is unconstitutional, McCown told a League of Women Voters forum on school finance. An income tax can be implemented, though it would require statewide voter approval.

The real constitutional mandate is for an equitable public school system, he said.

"Our constitution from the very beginning has had a provision making it the duty of the Legislature the support and maintenance of a public school system," McCown said. "You have to have universal education to make democracy work. It's a bedrock Texas principle."

The current system is in a deepening crisis, he added.

"We have an explosion in our child population," he said. "Between 2000 and 2003, we added 350,000 more children. By 2040, our school enrollment is going to double."

But there's a gap between rich and poor districts.

"What does that mean for our state if we don't close that gap? It means we don't have the work force and the markets we have now," he said.

McCown said the much-maligned "Robin Hood" wealth-sharing system isn't broken.

"We came up with the Robin Hood plan because the Supreme Court said we have to have a system that's roughly equitable," he said. "Robin Hood has worked exactly as it was supposed to. Every region of the state, every demographic group, benefits from the Robin Hood system."

But it's not enough, he said. More money is needed.

"The state does not have a state tax that can generate the money needed," McCown said.

Many of the ideas that have circulated around Austin won't work, he contends.

"People always say let's eliminate fraud, waste and abuse, and the flip side of that, let's run government smarter, like a business," he said. "Of course there is fraud, waste and abuse in any human endeavor. Of course we can run things smarter. That can put millions of dollars on the table. But we're talking about needing billions of dollars on the table."

Sin won't do the job, either.

"Everyone's for taxing sin, but what happens when you tax sin? It diminishes," he said. "That's a good thing, but if we have less sin, we have less tax dollars."

He dismisses video lottery terminals.

"VLTs are the crack cocaine of gambling," he said. "They're designed for idiots. You win just enough to lose everything."

Nor are sales taxes the answer, he said.

"Sales taxes are regressive; they hit the poor the hardest," said McCown. "They also undermine the economy. The way you make your country wealthier is to expand the middle class. Increasing the sales tax would prevent people from moving into the middle class. And on top of that, it isn't fair."

Many lawmakers have pinned their hopes on business activity taxes, of one sort or another. But McCown, who heard school finance cases as a state district judge from 1989 to 2002, says those won't go far enough. The best solution is an income tax, he contended.

"Who wins and who loses?" he asked. "The bottom 60 percent of Texas families would have a net decrease in taxes. The top 20 percent would see a net increase."

The recently announced Senate plan, which includes those business taxes, is also just a partial solution, he said.

"The Senate plan that was just announced would buy down your property tax from $1.50 to $1.15," he explained. "It would soak up all the extra money for education. This plan would lower your school property taxes from $1.50 to 50 cents, and net $6 billion for education."