Thomas Pauken
Encyclopedia
Thomas Weir Pauken (born June 11, 1944) is a Dallas
, Texas
, lawyer
and author
who served as chairman of the Republican Party of Texas
from 1994–1997 during the transition period when the party leaped from minority to majority status in the state. A staunch conservative, Pauken lost two tight races for U.S. Congress in 1978 and 1980, and in 1998, he failed in a bid for the Republican nomination for Texas attorney general
.
Governor
Rick Perry
appointed Pauken is the chairman of the Texas Workforce Commission, which administers state unemployment compensation benefits. On August 21, 2006, Perry named Pauken to chair the Texas Task Force on Appraisal Reform (TFAR) to study and make recommendations on how to address Texans' continuing concerns over property appraisals. In 2010, Pauken endorsed Perry for renomination in his successful race against U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison
and for reelection in the fall campaign against Bill White, a former mayor
of Houston
, Texas.
Pauken was born in Victoria
in Victoria County
, Texas. He received his bachelor's degree in 1965 in political science
from Georgetown University
in Washington, D.C.
. From 1967 - 1970, he served in the U.S. Army, with a tour of duty in Vietnam
. He obtained his Juris Doctor
degree from Southern Methodist University
in Dallas in 1973 and launched his law practice thereafter.
Pauken is married to the former Ida Ayala, and the couple has seven children: Thomas, II, Michelle, Angela, Elizabeth, Daniel, Monica, and Victoria. The Paukens are Roman Catholic.
Representative James Albon "Jim" Mattox
of Dallas for the Fifth District seat in the U.S. Congress, a position held by earlier Republicans Bruce Reynolds Alger and Alan Steelman
. Mattox was assisted in his campaign by visits from President Jimmy Carter
and First Lady Rosalyn Carter. Pauken offered a conservative
alternative in sharp contrast to Mattox. The Democrat prevailed, with 35,524 votes (50.3 percent) to Pauken's 34,672 (49.1 percent). In the rematch in 1980, Pauken lost by 3,044 votes: 70,892 (51.0 percent) to 67,848 (48.8 percent). While Ronald W. Reagan was a winner in the Fifth District, he had no presidential coattails sufficient to lift Pauken to victory. Indeed, Pauken ran .3 of 1 percent below his initial 1978 showing.
After the congressional losses, Pauken joined the transition team of President-elect Reagan. In 1981, Reagan appointed Pauken director of the volunteer program ACTION
. He stayed for the first Reagan term and then returned to his law practice in Dallas. President Reagan nominated him for another position on April 22, 1987, when Pauken was chosen to be a member of the Board of Directors of the Inter-American Foundation. http://www.reagan.utexas.edu/archives/speeches/1987/042287d.htm
, and former President George Herbert Walker Bush. Pauken won the chairmanship by defeating a last-minute challenge waged by conservative Congressman Joe Barton
, whose district then stretched from the Dallas southern suburbs to Bryan
-College Station. Pauken blamed Karl Rove
, then an advisor to Clements and the first President Bush, for encouraging Barton to run for the chairmanship. Pauken did not hesitate to quarrel with the more moderate elements in the party, who were delighted to see him step down in 1997.
The party continued to experience divisions between its "economic" conservative wing and its "social" conservative wing. In 1996, for instance, evangelical conservative elements had tried to prevent the naming of Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison
as a delegate to the Republican National Convention in San Diego because Hutchison supports the Roe v. Wade
decision on abortion though she has voted for some restrictions on the practice. Hutchison was booed at the state convention, and many delegates had expressed little interest in the presidential campaign waged by then Senator William Philip "Phil" Gramm
of Texas
. Pauken supported the selection of Hutchison as a delegate to the national convention, and she was elected a delegate at the state convention.
to seek once more his previous job as attorney general. Moreover, (3) Pauken faced two strong challenges within his own party, State Supreme Court Justice John Cornyn
and Barry Williamson
, a departing member of the Texas Railroad Commission. In the primary, Pauken gained the endorsement and financial assistance of defeated (1996 and 2000) Republican presidential candidate Steve Forbes
of New Jersey
, whom Pauken had introduced to the Texas delegates. As chairman, Pauken had been technically neutral in the 1996 presidential primary.
Pauken finished third in the attorney general primary in March 1998, as Cornyn and Williamson went into a runoff. Pauken believed that Karl C. Rove
, by then the top advisor to Governor George W. Bush
was behind the recruitment of his two primary opponents. Barry Williamson led in the primary, with 208,345 (38.1 percent) to Cornyn's 176,269 (32.23) and Pauken's 162,180 votes (29.67 percent).
Denied a runoff berth by some fourteen thousand votes, Pauken at first said that he would endorse neither Cornyn nor Williamson, but as the campaign progressed, he said that he could not vote for Williamson. Cornyn won the nomination in a low-turnout runoff, 135,130 (57.9 percent) to 98,218 (42.1 percent).
Cornyn went on to defeat Mattox in the general election, 2,002,794 (54.25 percent) to Mattox's 1,631,045 (44.18 percent). (A Libertarian received 57,604 votes or 1.56 percent.) Cornyn, however, did not hold the position beyond the one term. In 2002, he was elected to the U.S. Senate, and Republican Greg Abbott
was chosen to succeed Cornyn as attorney general. Pauken did not again seek office.
in Texas
prior to his chairmanship was primarily a "Rockefeller party
" even though Barry M. Goldwater had been strongly preferred by Texas delegates to the 1964 national convention, rather than the then New York Governor (and future vice president) Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller. Pauken is the author of The Thirty Years War—The Politics of the Sixties Generation (1994). He is also a contributor to Chronicles
, a paleoconservative magazine published by the Rockford Institute
in Rockford, Illinois
, which supported former Republican Patrick J. Buchanan for the GOP presidential nominations in 1992 and 1996.
"Those who know me know that I have never been shy about encouraging elected leaders to adhere to the Republican Party's conservative philosophy when dealing with the issue of taxes. As former chairman of the Republican Party of Texas, a former member of the Reagan administration and a conservative, grassroots activist for more than four decades, I have been unequivocal in my support for conservative tax reform, even if the byproduct is a few ruffled feathers. There is no doubt that, if this plan flouted conservative principles, I would be among the first to publicly call for its defeat.
"Instead, I am urging lawmakers to adopt this plan as soon as possible because it would be a tremendous victory for Texas
homeowners and taxpayers. At the same time, this legislation encourages job creation and economic growth, particularly in the manufacturing sector."
The proposal was adopted near the close of the special session of the legislature, which met a June 1, 2006, deadline, set by the Texas Supreme Court in regard to school funding.
Dallas, Texas
Dallas is the third-largest city in Texas and the ninth-largest in the United States. The Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex is the largest metropolitan area in the South and fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States...
, Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
, lawyer
Lawyer
A lawyer, according to Black's Law Dictionary, is "a person learned in the law; as an attorney, counsel or solicitor; a person who is practicing law." Law is the system of rules of conduct established by the sovereign government of a society to correct wrongs, maintain the stability of political...
and author
Author
An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...
who served as chairman of the Republican Party of Texas
Republican Party of Texas
The Republican Party of Texas is one of the two major political parties in the U.S. State of Texas. It is affiliated with the United States Republican Party. The State Chairman is Steve Munisteri, a retired attorney and businessman from Houston, and the Vice-Chair is Melinda Fredricks of Conroe....
from 1994–1997 during the transition period when the party leaped from minority to majority status in the state. A staunch conservative, Pauken lost two tight races for U.S. Congress in 1978 and 1980, and in 1998, he failed in a bid for the Republican nomination for Texas attorney general
Attorney General
In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general, or attorney-general, is the main legal advisor to the government, and in some jurisdictions he or she may also have executive responsibility for law enforcement or responsibility for public prosecutions.The term is used to refer to any person...
.
Governor
Governor of Texas
The governor of Texas is the head of the executive branch of Texas's government and the commander-in-chief of the state's military forces. The governor has the power to either approve or veto bills passed by the Texas Legislature, and to convene the legislature...
Rick Perry
Rick Perry
James Richard "Rick" Perry is the 47th and current Governor of Texas. A Republican, Perry was elected Lieutenant Governor of Texas in 1998 and assumed the governorship in December 2000 when then-governor George W. Bush resigned to become President of the United States. Perry was elected to full...
appointed Pauken is the chairman of the Texas Workforce Commission, which administers state unemployment compensation benefits. On August 21, 2006, Perry named Pauken to chair the Texas Task Force on Appraisal Reform (TFAR) to study and make recommendations on how to address Texans' continuing concerns over property appraisals. In 2010, Pauken endorsed Perry for renomination in his successful race against U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison
Kay Bailey Hutchison
Kathryn Ann Bailey Hutchison, known as Kay Bailey Hutchison , is the senior United States Senator from Texas.She is a member of the Republican Party. In 2001, she was named one of the thirty most powerful women in America by Ladies Home Journal. The first woman to represent Texas in the U.S....
and for reelection in the fall campaign against Bill White, a former mayor
Mayor
In many countries, a Mayor is the highest ranking officer in the municipal government of a town or a large urban city....
of Houston
Houston, Texas
Houston is the fourth-largest city in the United States, and the largest city in the state of Texas. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, the city had a population of 2.1 million people within an area of . Houston is the seat of Harris County and the economic center of , which is the ...
, Texas.
Pauken was born in Victoria
Victoria, Texas
Victoria is a city in and the seat of Victoria County, Texas, United States. The population was 60,603 at the 2000 census. The three counties of the Victoria Metropolitan Statistical Area had a population of 111,163 at the 2000 census,...
in Victoria County
Victoria County, Texas
Victoria County is a county located in the U.S. state of Texas. In 2000, its population was 84,088. Its county seat is Victoria. It is included in the Victoria, Texas Metropolitan Statistical Area.-Geography:According to the U.S...
, Texas. He received his bachelor's degree in 1965 in political science
Political science
Political Science is a social science discipline concerned with the study of the state, government and politics. Aristotle defined it as the study of the state. It deals extensively with the theory and practice of politics, and the analysis of political systems and political behavior...
from Georgetown University
Georgetown University
Georgetown University is a private, Jesuit, research university whose main campus is in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded in 1789, it is the oldest Catholic university in the United States...
in Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
. From 1967 - 1970, he served in the U.S. Army, with a tour of duty in Vietnam
Vietnam
Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...
. He obtained his Juris Doctor
Juris Doctor
Juris Doctor is a professional doctorate and first professional graduate degree in law.The degree was first awarded by Harvard University in the United States in the late 19th century and was created as a modern version of the old European doctor of law degree Juris Doctor (see etymology and...
degree from Southern Methodist University
Southern Methodist University
Southern Methodist University is a private university in Dallas, Texas, United States. Founded in 1911 by the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, SMU operates campuses in Dallas, Plano, and Taos, New Mexico. SMU is owned by the South Central Jurisdiction of the United Methodist Church...
in Dallas in 1973 and launched his law practice thereafter.
Pauken is married to the former Ida Ayala, and the couple has seven children: Thomas, II, Michelle, Angela, Elizabeth, Daniel, Monica, and Victoria. The Paukens are Roman Catholic.
Two House challenges to Jim Mattox
In 1978, Pauken challenged the freshman DemocraticDemocratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
Representative James Albon "Jim" Mattox
Jim Mattox
James Albon Mattox was a Dallas lawyer and Texas Democratic politician who served three terms in the United States House of Representatives and two four-year terms as state Attorney General, but lost high profile races for Governor in 1990, the U.S. Senate in 1994, and again as attorney general...
of Dallas for the Fifth District seat in the U.S. Congress, a position held by earlier Republicans Bruce Reynolds Alger and Alan Steelman
Alan Steelman
Alan Watson Steelman is a Dallas businessman who was a Republican congressman from Texas between 1973 and 1977; at the time of his election, he was the youngest sitting member of Congress. He gave up his Fifth Congressional District seat to challenge Democratic incumbent Lloyd M. Bentsen, Jr., in...
. Mattox was assisted in his campaign by visits from President Jimmy Carter
Jimmy Carter
James Earl "Jimmy" Carter, Jr. is an American politician who served as the 39th President of the United States and was the recipient of the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize, the only U.S. President to have received the Prize after leaving office...
and First Lady Rosalyn Carter. Pauken offered a conservative
Conservatism
Conservatism is a political and social philosophy that promotes the maintenance of traditional institutions and supports, at the most, minimal and gradual change in society. Some conservatives seek to preserve things as they are, emphasizing stability and continuity, while others oppose modernism...
alternative in sharp contrast to Mattox. The Democrat prevailed, with 35,524 votes (50.3 percent) to Pauken's 34,672 (49.1 percent). In the rematch in 1980, Pauken lost by 3,044 votes: 70,892 (51.0 percent) to 67,848 (48.8 percent). While Ronald W. Reagan was a winner in the Fifth District, he had no presidential coattails sufficient to lift Pauken to victory. Indeed, Pauken ran .3 of 1 percent below his initial 1978 showing.
After the congressional losses, Pauken joined the transition team of President-elect Reagan. In 1981, Reagan appointed Pauken director of the volunteer program ACTION
ACTION (U.S. government agency)
ACTION was a United States government agency described as, "the Federal Domestic Volunteer Agency". It was formed in 1970 from VISTA; the Peace Corps; and the Foster Grandparents, Retired and Senior Volunteer, and Senior Companion Programs...
. He stayed for the first Reagan term and then returned to his law practice in Dallas. President Reagan nominated him for another position on April 22, 1987, when Pauken was chosen to be a member of the Board of Directors of the Inter-American Foundation. http://www.reagan.utexas.edu/archives/speeches/1987/042287d.htm
Chairmanship of the Texas Republican Party
In 1994, Pauken was elected chairman of the Texas Republican Party with strong support from evangelical conservatives disenchanted with the so-called "stand-patism" and moderation of the previous chairmen, including Fred Meyer, an ally of former Governor William Perry "Bill" Clements, Jr.Bill Clements
William Perry "Bill" Clements, Jr. was the 42nd and 44th Governor of Texas, serving from 1979 to 1983 and 1987 to 1991. Clements was the first Republican to have served as governor of the U.S. state of Texas since Reconstruction...
, and former President George Herbert Walker Bush. Pauken won the chairmanship by defeating a last-minute challenge waged by conservative Congressman Joe Barton
Joe Barton
Joseph Linus "Joe" Barton is a Republican politician, representing in the U.S. House of Representatives since 1985, and a member of the Tea Party Caucus...
, whose district then stretched from the Dallas southern suburbs to Bryan
Bryan, Texas
Bryan is a city in Brazos County, Texas, United States. As of the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 76,201. It is the county seat of Brazos County and is located in the heart of the Brazos Valley . It shares its border with the city of College Station, which lies to its south...
-College Station. Pauken blamed Karl Rove
Karl Rove
Karl Christian Rove was Senior Advisor and Deputy Chief of Staff to former President George W. Bush until Rove's resignation on August 31, 2007. He has headed the Office of Political Affairs, the Office of Public Liaison, and the White House Office of Strategic Initiatives...
, then an advisor to Clements and the first President Bush, for encouraging Barton to run for the chairmanship. Pauken did not hesitate to quarrel with the more moderate elements in the party, who were delighted to see him step down in 1997.
The party continued to experience divisions between its "economic" conservative wing and its "social" conservative wing. In 1996, for instance, evangelical conservative elements had tried to prevent the naming of Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison
Kay Bailey Hutchison
Kathryn Ann Bailey Hutchison, known as Kay Bailey Hutchison , is the senior United States Senator from Texas.She is a member of the Republican Party. In 2001, she was named one of the thirty most powerful women in America by Ladies Home Journal. The first woman to represent Texas in the U.S....
as a delegate to the Republican National Convention in San Diego because Hutchison supports the Roe v. Wade
Roe v. Wade
Roe v. Wade, , was a controversial landmark decision by the United States Supreme Court on the issue of abortion. The Court decided that a right to privacy under the due process clause in the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution extends to a woman's decision to have an abortion,...
decision on abortion though she has voted for some restrictions on the practice. Hutchison was booed at the state convention, and many delegates had expressed little interest in the presidential campaign waged by then Senator William Philip "Phil" Gramm
Phil Gramm
William Philip "Phil" Gramm is an American economist and politician, who has served as a Democratic Congressman , a Republican Congressman and a Republican Senator from Texas...
of Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
. Pauken supported the selection of Hutchison as a delegate to the national convention, and she was elected a delegate at the state convention.
Running for Texas attorney general, 1998
After he left the chairmanship, Pauken announced his candidacy for Texas attorney general in the 1998 elections. He expected to face the Democratic incumbent Dan Morales in the November general election and made speeches attacking Morales' record. However, three unexpected events developed. (1) Morales, who was later imprisoned on a felony, declined to seek a third term, and (2) the Democrats chose Pauken's old congressional rival Jim MattoxJim Mattox
James Albon Mattox was a Dallas lawyer and Texas Democratic politician who served three terms in the United States House of Representatives and two four-year terms as state Attorney General, but lost high profile races for Governor in 1990, the U.S. Senate in 1994, and again as attorney general...
to seek once more his previous job as attorney general. Moreover, (3) Pauken faced two strong challenges within his own party, State Supreme Court Justice John Cornyn
John Cornyn
John Cornyn, III is the junior United States Senator for Texas, serving since 2003. He is a member of the Republican Party. He was elected Chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee for the 111th U.S. Congress....
and Barry Williamson
Barry Williamson
Barry Ashlin Williamson is an American attorney who served as a Republican member of the Texas Railroad Commission from 1992-1999...
, a departing member of the Texas Railroad Commission. In the primary, Pauken gained the endorsement and financial assistance of defeated (1996 and 2000) Republican presidential candidate Steve Forbes
Steve Forbes
Malcolm Stevenson "Steve" Forbes, Jr. is an American editor, publisher, and businessman. He is the editor-in-chief of business magazine Forbes as well as president and chief executive officer of its publisher, Forbes Inc. He was a Republican candidate in the U.S. Presidential primaries in 1996...
of New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
, whom Pauken had introduced to the Texas delegates. As chairman, Pauken had been technically neutral in the 1996 presidential primary.
Pauken finished third in the attorney general primary in March 1998, as Cornyn and Williamson went into a runoff. Pauken believed that Karl C. Rove
Karl Rove
Karl Christian Rove was Senior Advisor and Deputy Chief of Staff to former President George W. Bush until Rove's resignation on August 31, 2007. He has headed the Office of Political Affairs, the Office of Public Liaison, and the White House Office of Strategic Initiatives...
, by then the top advisor to Governor George W. Bush
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
was behind the recruitment of his two primary opponents. Barry Williamson led in the primary, with 208,345 (38.1 percent) to Cornyn's 176,269 (32.23) and Pauken's 162,180 votes (29.67 percent).
Denied a runoff berth by some fourteen thousand votes, Pauken at first said that he would endorse neither Cornyn nor Williamson, but as the campaign progressed, he said that he could not vote for Williamson. Cornyn won the nomination in a low-turnout runoff, 135,130 (57.9 percent) to 98,218 (42.1 percent).
Cornyn went on to defeat Mattox in the general election, 2,002,794 (54.25 percent) to Mattox's 1,631,045 (44.18 percent). (A Libertarian received 57,604 votes or 1.56 percent.) Cornyn, however, did not hold the position beyond the one term. In 2002, he was elected to the U.S. Senate, and Republican Greg Abbott
Greg Abbott
Gregory Wayne "Greg" Abbott is the Texas Attorney General, and is the second Republican since Reconstruction to serve in that role. Abbott was sworn in on December 2, 2002, following John Cornyn's election to the U.S. Senate...
was chosen to succeed Cornyn as attorney general. Pauken did not again seek office.
As a commentator
Pauken is a frequent political commentator on Dallas-area radio stations. He has never wavered from his strongly held conservative views. He once said that the GOPRepublican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
in Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
prior to his chairmanship was primarily a "Rockefeller party
Rockefeller Republican
Rockefeller Republican refers to a faction of the United States Republican Party who held moderate to liberal views similar to those of Nelson Rockefeller...
" even though Barry M. Goldwater had been strongly preferred by Texas delegates to the 1964 national convention, rather than the then New York Governor (and future vice president) Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller. Pauken is the author of The Thirty Years War—The Politics of the Sixties Generation (1994). He is also a contributor to Chronicles
Chronicles (magazine)
Chronicles is a U.S. monthly magazine published by the Rockford Institute. Its full current name is Chronicles: A Magazine of American Culture. The magazine is known for promoting anti-globalism, anti-intervention and anti-immigration stances within conservative politics, and is considered one of...
, a paleoconservative magazine published by the Rockford Institute
Rockford Institute
Rockford Institute is a conservative think-tank associated with paleoconservatism, based in Rockford, Illinois. It is known for the John Randolph Club, and publishes Chronicles: A Magazine of American Culture....
in Rockford, Illinois
Rockford, Illinois
Rockford is a mid-sized city located on both banks of the Rock River in far northern Illinois. Often referred to as "The Forest City", Rockford is the county seat of Winnebago County, Illinois, USA. As reported in the 2010 U.S. census, the city was home to 152,871 people, the third most populated...
, which supported former Republican Patrick J. Buchanan for the GOP presidential nominations in 1992 and 1996.
Endorsing property tax relief
On April 26, 2006, Pauken endorsed the Texas Tax Reform Commission's plan for property tax relief and business tax reform. A portion of his statement follows:"Those who know me know that I have never been shy about encouraging elected leaders to adhere to the Republican Party's conservative philosophy when dealing with the issue of taxes. As former chairman of the Republican Party of Texas, a former member of the Reagan administration and a conservative, grassroots activist for more than four decades, I have been unequivocal in my support for conservative tax reform, even if the byproduct is a few ruffled feathers. There is no doubt that, if this plan flouted conservative principles, I would be among the first to publicly call for its defeat.
"Instead, I am urging lawmakers to adopt this plan as soon as possible because it would be a tremendous victory for Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
homeowners and taxpayers. At the same time, this legislation encourages job creation and economic growth, particularly in the manufacturing sector."
The proposal was adopted near the close of the special session of the legislature, which met a June 1, 2006, deadline, set by the Texas Supreme Court in regard to school funding.