Will there be a special session other than the one on school finance? And will it really start on June 30? And will the subject be government reorganization? The budget? Franchise taxes? The 10 percent rule for college admissions? And is congressional redistricting the only reason to come back, with whatever else just thrown in to provide a cover story for what voters might see as a political session?

Gov. Rick Perry hasn't called legislators back yet, though we expect an announcement soon. He has said that there will be a special session later in this cycle on the subject of school finance. He has not said that will be the only special session. He has not said it won't be the only special session. And he hasn't shown his list of what issues other than school finance might be important enough to him to call lawmakers back before their regular session in January 2005. Neither is he through vetoing bills, and a veto in just the right place could easily create a need for some instant legislating.

The Houston Chronicle, crediting unnamed Republican legislative sources, reports Perry will call a summer session with government reorganization as the "other" issue. Congressional redistricting, by that account (and by every single other version we've heard) would be the second issue.

Redistricting is also the only issue that brings with it an immediate concern about timing. If they're going to do the maps before next year's elections, they have to build in a few months for the U.S. Department of Justice and the federal courts to bless their new plans. At the beginning of the legislative session, government reorganization was touted as one of the best ways to save money in order to balance the budget without a tax increase. The bill died at least twice along the way before finally sputtering to a stop on the last weekend of the session. By then, the money wasn't needed -- budgeteers had figured out how to make the numbers work without the remodeling job.

Other ideas that have been mentioned as potential disguises for a special session on congressional redistricting also suffer from urgency deficits. The Legislature didn't find a way to recapture the corporations that found a legal hole in the franchise tax. As a result, they missed out on $220 million to $350 million in taxes that Perry and others exempted from their No New Taxes pledges. They lost another $100 million or so when the comptroller said she was downgrading the current tax. If companies know they can cut and run, she said, they'll do it, to the tune of another $100 million. Still, without the franchise tax "fix," the budget balanced.

Lawmakers also deadlocked -- because of a filibuster by Sen. Royce West, D-Dallas -- on changes to the law that gives the first crack at universities to Texas high schoolers who finish in the top 10 percent of their classes. Colleges claim they're overrun with top-10 students whose overall test scores aren't as good as those of some non top-10 students who can't find room on the admissions list. Put another way: Students in the top ten at one school might be less qualified for college than those in the second or third 10 percent at another school. That could be a subject for a special session, but it would take some explaining to make an emergency of it.

A couple of weeks ago, the speculation centered on three issues that had not been approved by the Legislature: the budget, tort reform, and insurance regulation. The first has to pass. The other two were declared emergencies in January and didn't make it to the finish line until the last possible day. An ethics bill was on the list on the session's last weekend. But all four issues were approved by lawmakers. Unless Perry vetoes one of the bills (or, in the case of the budget, one of the bills that provides the money to make it balance), those are off the list of special session possibilities.

An Ethics Bill, the Old-Fashioned Way

For a few hours on the last weekend, it looked like campaign and officeholder ethics legislation could be the subject of a special session. The House passed a bill after members watered down a committee version in a series of meetings in www.txdps.state.tx.us [1]). The agency destroyed some of the evidence of its search for the missing House Democrats after they came back, claiming that since there was no criminal activity, there was no need to keep the records. But some documents remain and you can look through them at the website. Once you're there, click on News, then on Press Releases. There's a link near the top of that web page titled "Investigation at the Direction of the Texas House of Representatives, Office of the Sergeant-at-Arms" that will take you to a full set of the documents that weren't destroyed in the first few days after the Democrats came home.

• The family and friends of the late Dallas Morning News political reporter Sam Attlesey have started raising money for an endowed chair in the college of communications at the University of Texas. If they raise the money needed -- a minimum of $25,000 -- it'll provide an annual grant to students at upper levels of the school who want to be political and public policy reporters when they graduate. Contribution forms are available from the dean's office.

Political People and Their Moves

After the Legislature left town, Gov. Rick Perry appointed two new judges. Carmen Rivera-Worley of Denton -- where she now runs the civil division in the district attorney's office -- got a spot on the 16th District Court. The remaining term runs until the end of next year. He appointed Dallas attorney Robert Henry Frost to the 116th District Court for a term that runs that same length. Both escaped the Senate confirmation process during the regular session, but they'd have to win Senate approval during a special session, if one is held before their election dates, to keep their jobs.

In the Not Exactly An Appointment category, the Guv named Dallas County Commissioner Jim Jackson the presiding officer on the Texas Commission on Jail Standards, which oversees county jails and the people locked up in them. Jackson's been on the board since 1999.

Rep. Garnet Coleman, D-Houston, is he new chairman of the Legislative Black Caucus. He was elected to succeed Joe Deshotel, D-Beaumont...

Found in contempt: Jack Douglas and Cathy DeWitt of the Texas Association of Business, for refusing to testify before a Travis County grand jury. The judge said he won't put them in jail, pending their appeals. The grand jury wants to look at TAB's campaign spending and whether the association illegally used corporate money for campaign spending. TAB contends its First Amendment rights are threatened and wants to block the inquiries and the contempt orders...

Voters in an Anglo area of San Antonio put an African-American Democrat on their city council, electing Art Hall by 50 votes to an open seat. Hall is a lawyer and investment banker and a former mayoral candidate there...

U.S. Senate Democrats nominated Austin attorney Ray Martinez to a spot on the federal Election Assistance Commission. Martinez headed the Every Texan Foundation, a non-profit that was supposed to register 500,000 new voters by last year's elections. That group was nonpartisan, but was loosely tied to former gubernatorial candidate Tony Sanchez Jr. and his efforts to bring minority voters to the polls who'd never taken part before. The nomination is one of four made to President George W. Bush, who'll make the actual appointments...

Errors of Place: Republican Sen. Jane Nelson lives in Lewisville. We put her in her old house in Flower Mound last week... Separately, there's no telling what those Arizoniacs would do if they had to spell Waxahachie or Watauga -- but the way they spell Fort Huachuca is not the way we did on our last attempt. Sorry, sorry, sorry.

Quotes of the Week

Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn, who won't sign the final budget certification numbers until later in the summer: "It ain't over till the fat lady sings. I may not be as fat, but it ain't over."

Attorney Buck Wood, who represents poor school districts, giving the Austin American-Statesman his opinion of a lawsuit from rich districts that challenges the state's school finance system: "If we thought we could have won this kind of suit, we would have filed it."

Lubbock City Councilman Gary Boren, telling the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal he won't stay in office if the state enacts ethics laws requiring him to make public his personal finances: "If it happens, I go."

White House spokesbot Ari Fleischer quoted in The New York Times on his decision to quit that job: "I have a real life outside this business, which is one of the reasons that I'm willing to leave this business. I believe in real life."

U.S. Surgeon General Richard Carmona, in congressional testimony quickly disavowed by the White House: "I see no need for any tobacco products in society."

Rep. David Swinford, R-Dumas, telling the Houston Chronicle what he thinks about coming back for a special session this summer: "I'm about sick of the whole deal right now, but I'll be ready."

Texas journalist and author Jim Moore, quoted by the BuzzFlash.com website: "Compassionate conservatism in Texas is where they ask you if want green Jell-O or red Jell-O before they stick the needle in your arm and execute you."

Texas Weekly, Volume 19, Issue 48, 9 June 2003. Ross Ramsey, Editor. George Phenix, Publisher. Copyright 2003 by Printing Production Systems, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission from the publisher is prohibited. One-year online subscription: $250. For information about your subscription, call (800) 611-4980 or email biz@ texasweekly.com [2]. For news, email ramsey@ texasweekly.com [3], or call (512) 288-6598.