Texas Constitution's broke; time to fix it

EDITORIAL BOARD
Austin Statesman
Sunday, June 07, 2009

The Legislature left town last week without approving measures needed to keep five state agencies in business. Not to worry, the leaders said, guaranteeing that they can do the magic needed to keep the agencies functioning.

OK, fine. So let's assign them a more challenging task or two.

How about a long-overdue review of major structural flaws in state government?

The primary flaw is the state's primary document. The 1876 Texas Constitution has 456 amendments. It's been amended about 17 times more often than the U.S. Constitution.

That ought to be unconstitutional. And it results from a document packed with provisions that should be in law, not in a constitution. It should not take a statewide vote to do away with hide inspectors in some counties.

Not many folks think the Texas Constitution is defensible. Even fewer see much chance of doing anything about it.

Ask a man who tried.

In 1998, then-Sen. Bill Ratliff, R-Mt. Pleasant, working with then-Rep. Rob Junell, D-San Angelo, came up with a proposed 19,000-word Constitution to replace the 90,000-word version. It went nowhere. Ratliff says it's still an overhaul that "needs badly to be done."

In addition to special-interest opposition ("enemies accumulate," he noted), Ratliff said constitutional overhaul runs into misguided public opposition.

"Deep down, a lot of people feel the more provisions there are in the Constitution, the less the Legislature can screw up," Ratliff said.

You're underestimating your legislators.

"People would be amazed at how many times what we are doing is figuring out ways to wire around the Constitution," Ratliff said.

Also ripe for an overdue overhaul is the Texas tax system deemed "rickety" by Senate Finance Chairman Steve Ogden, R-Bryan, in the session's closing days.

This past week, Ogden expanded on his analysis. "Very rickety and it's getting worse," he said.

"As long as I've been in the Legislature somebody has been down there trying to carve out an exception for some narrow personal interest," Ogden said. "The exceptions are about to overwhelm the system."

Tax abatements beget tax abatements to the point that Ogden believes "nobody knows" the impact of providing tax incentives.

"We're just guessing," he said.

Raise your hand if you feel good about hearing the Senate's chief budget-writer talk about "guessing."

Another Ogden observation: "The economy has changed from an agrarian economy to a service-based economy. But we don't tax services so the sales tax is pretty inefficient."

If we did, Ogden said, the 6.25 percent state sales tax rate could be lowered a couple of points.

You wouldn't want to erase all exemptions, but it is something that should be reviewed.

Ditto for property tax.

"Every session, any number of legislators have got their own special exceptions. It can range anywhere from disabled veterans to homesteads to huge tax breaks for giant corporations. It's all over the map," Ogden said.

The Constitution and the tax system seem like fine topics for the 2010 crop of state political candidates.

"They'll talk about it," Ogden said, "and what we will do as politicians is describe the problem. But we won't be able to offer any solution. That's kind of the history. It's because, frankly, the public is not demanding one."

Ogden has a depressing theory on why: The potential fixes scare you more than the problems.

"I think the public is pretty distrustful of the government, and every time we talk about simplification or overhaul they say, 'Uh oh. I'm going to get the shaft somehow,' " Ogden said. "Right now, the public has very little trust in their government to do the right thing."

And that is far more dangerous than any problems caused by an arcane Constitution and a rickety tax structure.

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