Ten constitutional amendments on the ballot
There are 10 constitutional amendment propositions on the Nov. 5 ballot. A majority vote is needed to adopt any proposition.
• Proposition 1 is “The constitutional amendment permitting a person to hold more than one office as a municipal judge at the same time.”
Under this amendment, municipal judges would be allowed to hold offices in multiple municipalities at the same time.
• Proposition 2 is “The constitutional amendment providing for the issuance of additional general obligation bonds by the Texas Water Development Board in an amount not to exceed $200 million to provide financial assistance for the development of certain projects in economically distressed areas.”
This amendment would allow the Texas Water Development Board wants to issue general obligation bonds to help fund sewer and water development in economically distressed areas of the state.
• Proposition 3 is “The constitutional amendment authorizing the Legislature to provide for a temporary exemption from ad valorem taxation of a portion of the appraised value of certain property damaged by a disaster.”
If approved, property owners would be allowed a mandatory exemption from property taxes for the year if they suffered a governor-declared natural disaster.
• Proposition 4 is “The constitutional amendment prohibiting the imposition of an individual income tax, including a tax on an individual’s share of partnership and unincorporated association income.”
If approved, Prop 4 would ban any state income tax from being approved without a constitutional amendment.
• Proposition 5 is “The constitutional amendment dedicating the revenue received from the existing state sales and use taxes that are imposed on sporting goods to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department and the Texas Historical Commission to protect Texas’ natural areas, water quality and history by acquiring, managing and improving state and local parks and historic sites while not increasing the rate of the state sales and use taxes.”
If passed, the proposition would require all sales taxes from sporting goods, including footwear and apparel, to be used solely to provide funding for parks and historic sites and would not allow lawmakers to divert funds as they have in the past for other issues.
• Proposition 6 is “The constitutional amendment authorizing the Legislature to increase by $3 billion the maximum bond amount authorized for the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas.”
This proposition would double the allowed amount of general obligation bonds that fund The Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas from $3 billion to $6 billion.
• Proposition 7 is “The constitutional amendment allowing increased distributions to the available school fund.”
This proposition would double the amount of funds the Permanent School Fund can contribute to public education from $300 million to $600 million. The Permanent School Fund is an endowment that holds the fund’s investment returns and the proceeds from state land and mineral rights dedicated to the support of public schools.
• Proposition 8 is “The constitutional amendment providing for the creation of the flood infrastructure fund to assist in the financing of drainage, flood mitigation and flood control projects.”
This proposition would set aside $793 million from the Economic Stabilization Fund outside of the general fund budget to help local governments perform basic flood preparedness, including building dams and levees and funding education and research around flood mitigation.
• Proposition 9 is “The constitutional amendment authorizing the Legislature to exempt from ad valorem taxation precious metal held in a precious metal depository located in this state.”
This proposition would remove ad valorem taxes from local governments on income-producing precious metals kept in a Texas-based depository. Precious metals include gold, silver, palladium, rhodium and platinum. The state of Texas is opening a staterun depository in Leander next year.
• Proposition 10 is “The constitutional amendment to allow the transfer of a law enforcement animal to a qualified caretaker in certain circumstances.”
This proposition would allow law enforcement canines to be transferred to live with their handlers or other qualified caretakers when they are retired from service.
Provided by Lew Cohn of the Highlander News in Marble Falls.