Texas Governor Rick Perry convened the legislature in a fourth special session in April 2004 for state leaders to address school finance and tax related issues left unresolved in its 2003 regular biennial gathering. As the session opened, there was much uproar about how the system was to be changed dramatically. Some talked about creating a new school finance plan that would "last for decades," others promised Texas citizens a great reduction in local property taxes, and a few actually proposed that they would achieve both substantive education reform and tax "relief." [This document originally appeared in the "IDRA Newsletter", however some accompanying charts and graphs may not be provided here.]