Maybe the fifth time is the charm.

Texas lawmakers convene today for a 30-day special session on school funding. They face a June 1 deadline set by the Texas Supreme Court to overhaul the $33 billion school finance system.

It's the Legislature's fifth effort in two years to fix the system.

Lawmakers are not looking to increase the amount of money it puts into schools.

Instead, they are focused on lowering property taxes and replacing those cuts with other new taxes - a higher cigarette tax and a new business tax:

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	Special session News 8 Austin's Allie Rasmus reports from the State Capitol.

"This has nothing to do with children or education. This is purely to solve a technicality in the law, where we have inadvertently created a statewide property tax," political analyst Harvey Kronberg said.

The Texas Supreme Court says that technicality is unconstitutional.

The deadline is added pressure as are the recent primary elections because a number of incumbents, such as Rep. Kent Grusendorf, R-Arlington, were defeated. Grusendorf was the House leader on school finance reform during the last regular and two special sessions.

"Republicans in particular were startled at how involved parents were, not traditional primary voters but parents who are pro public schools," Kronberg said.

Whether they're newcomers or legislative veterans, lawmakers know they have a deadline to meet. The Texas Supreme Court has given lawmakers a June 1 deadline to restructure the tax system.

"The Supreme Court's mandate is very clear. You either get this fixed by June 1 or school funding could be in jeopardy," Gov. Perry said at an afternoon rally at the capitol.

For newly-elected Austin representative Donna Howard it's her first legislative session.

"I expect it's going to be very intense. We have a very short period of time to deal with this critical issue that we've been dealing with for quite awhile," Rep. Howard said.

Governor Rick Perry is pushing for lawmakers to adopt his plan. It includes a 1/3 reduction on property taxes and expanding the business franchise tax and adding a $1 dollar tax per pack of cigarettes.

The Governor appointed Democrat John Sharp to head up the effort behind his tax plan. Sharp presented the Governor's plan Monday to House members, trying to convince them to go with it. The Governor can't initiate legislation, so lawmakers would have to take up his tax ideas on his behalf. It seems like some of them have done that already -- kind of.

"It's being split up into five," House Speaker Tom Craddick said. "We've got five bills introduced."

Each of those five bills contain a different part of the Governor's plan. Craddick said lawmakers will take up the bill to lower property taxes first, and the bill to change the business franchise tax last.

"We've got some back up plans. If the--what do you call it? franchise tax--doesn't pass we've got some other ideas," Craddick said.

Craddick said the House could vote on a bill as early as the end of this week.

	School finance at a glance
It's the Legislature's sixth attempt at overhauling the system since 2003 through two regular and four special sessions. Here's a brief look at each: 2003 Regular session While both the House and Senate wanted to scrap the state's share-the-wealth school finance system, the two chambers couldn't agree on a plan. House leaders refused to discuss alternatives in detail, waiting instead for an upcoming special session. April-May 2004 A special session fizzled after a House plan was derailed when some Republican lawmakers said they wouldn't vote for legalizing video slot machines and Gov. Rick Perry said he wouldn't support a payroll tax on businesses. House and Senate leaders agreed to work together to formulate a plan before the Legislature reconvened. 2005 Regular session Over the last weekend of the regular session, House and Senate negotiators ground out an education spending plan at least some of them thought both sides could agree on. When the bill died, Senate leaders and Perry's office blamed House Speaker Tom Craddick. But he said the bill didn't have enough House support to pass in that chamber. June-July 2005 After a compromise tax plan designed to lower property taxes and raise other taxes failed, Perry and legislative leaders tried to pass an education funding bill. But even that bill failed in the session's final hours as opponents stalled it with parliamentary maneuvers and a two-hour, 15-minute filibuster. July-August 2005 After the House voted down its own school funding bill and property tax relief measure, Craddick urged legislative leaders to end the session early and wait for a Texas Supreme Court ruling. The Senate pressed ahead and approved a revised spending plan. But that bill died because it depended on a tax-swap bill that had to originate in the House and that never materialized.