Texas Constitutional Amendment Election November 2009 Voter's Guide

Below is the text of each proposed Amendment to the Constitution of the State of Texas, followed by the Official Endorsement of VoteForDavid's entire editorial and legal staff (read: me).

Proposition 1
"The constitutional amendment authorizing the financing, including through tax increment financing, of the acquisition by municipalities and counties of buffer areas or open spaces adjacent to a military installation for the prevention of encroachment or for the construction of roadways, utilities, or other infrastructure to protect or promote the mission of the military installation."

Vote NO (and HECK NO!) on Proposition 1. Please read the previous statement of my position on this Proposition (by clicking here) Cliff's notes: Proposition 1 means taking money from homeowners (as taxes), only to give it back as a consolation prize for forcing people out of their homes and businesses, so the military will feeeeel better about the areas surrounding military bases.


Proposition 2
"The constitutional amendment authorizing the legislature to provide for the ad valorem taxation of a residence homestead solely on the basis of the property's value as a residence homestead."

Please vote YES on Proposition 2.
Proposition two will stop the evil practice of telling property owners "well, you could build a mall here, and that would get the State much more tax revenue, so instead of taxing the ranch and little tiny ranch house on your land, we'll tax it like a mall. Thanks for giving us your money when we point our guns at you. Luv 'n' kisses, Texas." The Austin Chronicle says this proposition is "Just another backdoor way to slash taxes on valuable property, thereby undermining the public schools and other community needs." I ask the Chronicle, "Who the heck are you to say we shouldn't tax what IS (vs. what could be) because you think the community needs more money? Who died and made you God, anyway?"


Proposition 3
"The constitutional amendment providing for uniform standards and procedures for the appraisal of property for ad valorem tax purposes."

Please vote YES on Proposition 3.
All the districts in the State put property tax money into the public schools, but not all the districts appraise property values in the same way. This is not fair. If the rules made under the uniform standards turn out to be unfair or otherwise stinky, we can change them later. For now, let's start by making the rules in the first place.


Proposition 4
"The constitutional amendment establishing the national research university fund to enable emerging research universities in this state to achieve national prominence as major research universities and transferring the balance of the higher education fund to the national research university fund."

Please vote NO on Proposition 4.
We have THREE world-class research institutions at Texas universities: A private one at Rice, one at UT, and one at A&M. It's great to have world-class research facilities in your State, isn't it? Yeah, except that we are currently in a budget-destroying Recession right now, and university research departments don't operate on the cheap. We can't go spending MORE money on MORE tier-one schools right now. Let the proponents of this amendment ask again once the GDP number no longer has a (-) sign in front of it. When we're knee-deep in cash, maybe we will feel like having a dozen, brazillion-dollar research labs around the state. For now, we are struggling to fund the ones we already have.


Proposition 5
"The constitutional amendment authorizing the legislature to authorize a single board of equalization for two or more adjoining appraisal entities that elect to provide for consolidated equalizations."

Please vote NO on Proposition 5.
This gives me the creeping willies. If all the adjoining appraisal review boards (read "board of equalization") in the State get together and hold hands and sing Kum Bah Yah, we'll have ONE board of equalization. Does anybody really trust the government in (name a city across the State from your hometown) to know how much your property is worth, better than (your city name goes here)'s board of equalization does? No? Me neither. Sure, some of the districts are sparsely populated, or whatever the problem is. Let the locals handle it. Local control is BETTER than centralized control for almost everything, including LOCAL property value appraisals.


Proposition 6
"The constitutional amendment authorizing the Veterans' Land Board to issue general obligation bonds in amounts equal to or less than amounts previously authorized."

Please vote NO on Proposition 6.
Well, you think to yourself, that sounds harmlessly ambiguous, doesn't it? Sure it does, until you realize that we are talking about borrowing money our children haven't earned yet, to pay for stuff we won't own when the bill comes due. Wait! It's for the VETERANS! Don't you care about THEM? Of course I do; I am one myself, and so is my Darling Wife. Veterans are people too, and they can get financing if they are creditworthy. This measure doesn't mean "Loans vs. No Loans" for Veterans trying to get a house fresh back from Afghanistan. This proposition means we could issue $2Billion in bonds right now, instead of in increments of up to $500Million as we have done (repeatedly) before. It also means the State wouldn't have to ask you again, when they want to borrow another $2Billion. The money for these bonds is pretty sure to be paid back, I'll grant you. But you will have to grant me that the voters of Texas don't seem to have much difficulty approving more bonds for the funds as required. I'm not a big fan of automatic checks for paying my bills, and I'm not a big fan of writing automatically-renewing bond authorizations for the State of Texas, either.


Proposition 7
"The constitutional amendment to allow an officer or enlisted member of the Texas State Guard or other state militia or military force to hold other civil offices."

Please vote NO on Proposition 7
Let's say Texas State Guard Colonel Jones runs for Dog Catcher in (your city's name here). He's such a great guy, he wins. Then the State Guard needs him. He's deployed to (a city across the state from you) for 6 months. Then who will be your dog catcher? What if half of your local School Board (the half with brains) gets called up for duty? This is a really dumb idea. The reason this prohibition is in place, is because smart people thought of it a long time ago. On this issue, we should keep what makes sense. The main argument FOR this proposal is "everybody else can do it," and this reasoning is as simple-minded as it sounds.


Proposition 8
"The constitutional amendment authorizing the state to contribute money, property, and other resources for the establishment, maintenance, and operation of veterans hospitals in this state."

Please vote YES on Proposition 8.
There are only nine veterans' hospitals in the State, serving 1.7 Million veterans. Veterans are often a special kind of broken, and (trust me, I know first-hand) your local hospital probably doesn't play nice with their insurance. We shouldn't have those of our veterans broken for our sakes, jumping through extra hoops just to get their war wounds tended, should we? I'm not for going in to debt to pay for a new one, but if we have land we're not using I don't see a problem giving it up to allow a hospital to be put on it. If we have the money, I'm not even against paying some to help the Feds get a hospital going. I hope the People of Texas will have enough on the ball to require a bond issue to go to a vote before we go borrowing money, but that is a question for next year.


Proposition 9
"The constitutional amendment to protect the right of the public, individually and collectively, to access and use the public beaches bordering the seaward shore of the Gulf of Mexico."

Please vote YES on Proposition 9.
People that live right next to the beach don't like this idea, because you clutter up "their" beach frontage. The only problem with that is the actual beach is public land. In a hundred years, their beach frontage will be under water. Building right on the beach is a horrible idea, and everyone with property there knew it when they built their vacation home. The State lays claim to the water's edge for several very good reasons. When your property is a moving target, telling the rest of the citizenry to keep away because you don't like them near it is silly.


Proposition 10
"The constitutional amendment to provide that elected members of the governing boards of emergency services districts may serve terms not to exceed four years."

Please vote NO on Proposition 10
They serve two-year terms right now. Shorter is better, and if someone is doing a good job they can get re-elected. If not, four years may be three-and-a-half too many. Longer terms means less control over elected officials by the people who put them in office.


Proposition 11
"The constitutional amendment to prohibit the taking, damaging, or destroying of private property for public use unless the action is for the ownership, use, and enjoyment of the property by the State, a political subdivision of the State, the public at large, or entities granted the power of eminent domain under law or for the elimination of urban blight on a particular parcel of property, but not for certain economic development or enhancement of tax revenue purposes, and to limit the legislature's authority to grant the power of eminent domain to an entity."

Please vote YES on Proposition 11.
The anti-eminent-domain movement began when a bunch of people including an old lady named Kelo were to be kicked off their land so a mall could be built. The mall would make lots more money for the state than a silly little old lady's HOUSE. Off you go lady, like it or not. That case went all the way to the supreme Court and they said it was okay to do this sort of thing. Let's make sure the State knows that we don't like having our land stolen and given to somebody else for their own (private) profit. There are minor issues with the wording of the bill . . . those can be fixed later. Until then, I'm willing to trust that a minimum of 2/3 of both houses in the legislature won't go nuts creating new "entities".

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For a more thorough explanation of both sides of each issue, please read the House Research Organization's Focus Report, which I found at The Travis Monitor, where you can find some additional comments on this and other worthy topics, as well.