AUSTIN — You could almost see Gov. Greg Abbott’s eyes rolling in his emailed response to Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick’s suggestion that a 30-day special legislative session next year would be the best way to fix Texas’ flawed school funding system.

“Texans don’t want a full-time Legislature, they want a Legislature that can get their work done and then go home,” Abbott spokesman John Wittman said on the governor’s behalf.

Patrick told the Midland Reporter-Telegram that lawmakers just won't have time during the 140-day regular session next year to change the way school funding works. Too many other issues to deal with, he said. Abbott was unconvinced.

It was the first time Abbott and Patrick, Republicans cut from the same bolt of ultraconservative cloth, have publicly disagreed. But just about anybody, including Patrick, could have predicted how Abbott would respond to the proposition of a special session. He hasn’t been shy about calling those a waste of time.

Since only the governor can call a special legislative session, why would Patrick force Abbott to say no so publicly?

The politically astute former radio shock jockey and sports bar owner wasn’t just sticking his finger in Abbott’s eye. He’s laying out his agenda for the legislative session that is still two months away, making sure that everyone in Austin, from business interests and their lobbyists to Abbott and the Texas House, knows his priorities.

And what he really said in Midland is that education funding isn’t one of those priorities.

So, let’s take a look at Patrick’s priority list. He has said he wants tax cuts and new body armor for cops. But what tops his list and his political speeches is what Patrick calls the “Women’s Privacy Act.” You probably know it as the “bathroom bill,” a measure that will force transgender people to use the bathroom that corresponds with the gender on their birth certificates.

It’s expected to be a bruising political battle, and the fight is already on.

Patrick has promised to pass a North Carolina-style ban on allowing transgender people to use restrooms and locker rooms that align with their gender identity. He’s worried that letting transgender people choose the facilities that make the most sense to them will prompt sexual predators to prowl women’s restrooms.

"It's not about the transgender issue, it's not about discrimination, it's about protecting women," Patrick said last month in Dallas. If the state doesn't pass the bill, he said "we will have women abused, attacked and assaulted — not by transgender people, by sexual predators."

(Apparently, he’s only worried about men in the ladies’ room, who might attack poor, helpless girls and women. Dudes, you are on your own.)

Business groups who’ve seen the economic fallout of the ban in North Carolina are warning lawmakers that supporting the ban will draw their ire. They are worried the ban could drive away huge moneymaking events like the NCAA Final Four tournament scheduled in San Antonio in 2018.

"Any legislation along those lines would be harmful," said Bill Hammond, chief executive of the Texas Association of Business. About 200 small businesses have signed a pledge expressing their distaste for the measure. Another 1,100 larger companies, including The Dallas Morning News, have pledged to make Texas more welcoming for LGBT people.

Patrick’s bathroom bill puts Republican lawmakers in a jam. The ban is popular with far-right voters whose support is critical to win primary elections. But support from the business community is important, too, especially when it comes to filling bank accounts that fund re-election bids.

And there’s Patrick himself, who has become a hero of sorts to Texas’ ultraconservative right. No smart Republican would willingly make an enemy of him.

What makes this impending divisive brawl all the more frustrating for lawmakers and lobbyists and anyone who would like to accomplish substantive work during the legislative session, is that the U.S. Supreme Court has already agreed to take up the issue of transgender bathrooms. In a Virginia case, the justices will decide next year whether the federal government can force schools to allow transgender students to use bathrooms that align with their gender identity.

So legislators will go through the long, painful ordeal, with Patrick forcing them to pit themselves against one another and risk jeopardizing campaign resources and alienating voters, all to pass a ban that the nation’s top court might render invalid.

“That’s going to be a big, bloody, emotional fight,” said longtime Austin political consultant Bill Miller. “There will be no winners in that deal when it’s done.”

That is, unless House Speaker Joe Straus — who has been notably silent on the bathroom issue — finds a way to stanch the bloodletting by tapping into the cooler heads of his chamber. Abbott’s emphatic nope to Patrick’s special session idea wasn’t just a reflection of his distaste for expensive lawmaking overtime, it may also have been a message to the mouthpiece of the Senate.

“Governor Abbott is saying the Senate needs to check contentious issues at the door and focus on policy issues,” said Brandon Rottinghaus, political science professor at the University of Houston.

One hundred forty days every other year is a tight time frame to address all the problems of a state with almost 27 million people spread across nearly 270,000 square miles. But lawmakers will have time for the issues they make time to confront.

Miller said it best: “It’s not that the wagon gets overloaded. It’s a matter of what you load the wagon with.”

Brandi Grissom is the Austin bureau chief for The Dallas Morning News. Email: bgrissom@dallasnews.com