Senator Eliot Shapleigh - El Paso, Texas

AUSTIN - A school finance overhaul might be impossible without a new statewide property tax, a prospect that's giving heartburn to plenty of lawmakers -- especially those in the Texas House.

That's the word from Capitol observers and members of the Legislature, who watch as the property tax issue grows in importance.

"The Legislature is averse to committing bad votes," said political analyst Harvey Kronberg, editor of the online Quorum Report. "This just heightens their desire to wait and to let the Texas Supreme Court tell them what to do."

At issue is "Robin Hood," the 12-year-old school funding system in which the state redistributes local tax revenue from about 130 property-wealthy districts to property-poor ones.

Lawmakers from Gov. Rick Perry on down have said their priority this session is the elimination of Robin Hood and the reduction of property taxes that support it. A state district judge also has declared the system unconstitutional -- a decision that was appealed Wednesday to the Texas Supreme Court.

Also Wednesday, the office of Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott appealed to the Texas Supreme Court to consider an ongoing school finance case on an expedited basis. If the court accepts the appeal, the case would bypass the Texas Third District Court of Appeals and go directly to the high court.

"Because swift resolution of this case is important to students, parents, school districts and taxpayers throughout the State, we have asked the court to expedite the appeal and resolve it as soon as possible," Abbott said in a prepared statement.

A state district judge in Travis County earlier declared the Texas school finance system unconstitutional, ruling that it was underfunded and it robbed local districts of meaningful control over setting local taxes.

State Sen. Steve Ogden, the Bryan Republican who chairs the Senate Finance Committee, sees little possibility of fixing the system and satisfying the courts without a statewide property tax.

Ogden said Wednesday that creating an equitable system is easier to achieve with a statewide property tax.

He also noted that the Texas Supreme Court has already required such equity, and that legal finding has been reaffirmed in a separate court case that was appealed Wednesday to the Texas high court.

"I don't think ... that it's possible to solve our problem without going to a lower or broad-based statewide property tax," Ogden said.

But state Rep. Kent Grusendorf, the Arlington Republican who is chairman of the House Education Committee, sees little appetite for a statewide property tax in the House.

"I'm not sure that the public would approve a statewide property tax -- I think it would be very difficult," Grusendorf said Wednesday.

Under a school finance plan proposed last week by Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, Senate Education Chairwoman Florence Shapiro, R-Plano, and Ogden, the state would eliminate most local school district taxes and create a statewide tax of $1 per $100 of assessed property value.

Although vague, the plan would also expand business taxes and sales taxes. It would increase teacher pay and expand the state's baseline education budget by about $2 billion per year.

All 31 Texas senators endorsed the plan, although Ogden predicted that will change as details emerge.

House Speaker Tom Craddick has said the House may come up with a plan that puts a statewide property tax before voters but also offers an alternative funding mechanism. The state cannot implement a statewide property tax without voter approval because it would require a change in the Texas Constitution.