Revenues from the income tax were to go to local school districts under a complex financing formula.

His constituents, the parents, will defend him; he will lobby the government to change the financing formula.

But he spent most of his 22-minute speech pushing his health plan and the financing formula needed to make it work.

Negotiations last week centered on making the financing formula more palatable to suburban voters.

He added that the university planned to reconsider its financing formula to see whether it could give the campus a boost.

Lawmakers have expressed hope that the political will finally exists to make meaningful changes to the financing formula, long a contentious issue.

It now falls to the House to fight for a financing formula that will keep the nation safe.

The new Congress already has a bipartisan proposal in the works to update the public financing formula in time for 2012.

The Governor is expected to propose the first new financing formula in 14 years later this month.

How extensively the law and its financing formulas will be changed remain unclear.