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Family Values Voter’s Guide – State of Texas Constitutional Amendment Election November 5, 2019

SAFAFamily

State of Texas Constitutional Amendment Election

Early Vote Period: Monday, October 21, 2019 – Friday, November 1, 2019

Election Day: Tuesday, November 5, 2019

Proposition 1                                                       Consider VOTING: NO | AGAINST

“The constitutional amendment permitting a person to hold more than one office as a municipal judge at the same time.”

Proposition 2                                                      
Consider VOTING: NO | AGAINST

“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.”

Proposition 3                                                            Consider VOTING: YES | FOR

“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.”

Proposition 4                                                            Consider VOTING: YES | FOR

“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.”

Proposition 5                                                            Consider VOTING: YES | FOR

“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.”

Proposition 6                                                     
Consider VOTING: NO | AGAINST

“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.”

Proposition 7                                                     
Consider VOTING: NO | AGAINST

“The constitutional amendment allowing increased distributions to the available school fund.”

Proposition 8                                                      
Consider VOTING: NO | AGAINST

“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.”

Proposition 9                                                            Consider VOTING: YES | FOR

“The constitutional amendment authorizing the legislature to exempt from ad valorem taxation precious metal held in a precious metal depository located in this state.”

Proposition 10                                                          Consider VOTING: YES | FOR

“The constitutional amendment to allow the transfer of a law enforcement animal to a qualified caretaker in certain circumstances.”

Recommendation & Rationale Explanations

PROPOSITION 1 (HR72): Consider voting No | Against | Oppose“The constitutional amendment permitting a person to hold more than one office as a municipal judge at the same time.”

Reality: If an individual is elected as a municipal judge, currently they are prohibited from being elected or appointed as a judge. Yet an individual can serve in more than one municipal judge position if appointed to multiple positions. Proposition 1 will allow an individual to hold more than one office as an elected or appointed municipal judge for multiple municipalities at the same time.

SAFA position & rationale: Against Proposition 1. Texas already permits individuals to be appointed to multiple municipal judicial offices so the constitutional amendment will only modify the law to treat appointed and elected judges equally. This might be very important in more rural areas, however, the potential for minimizing the people of the particular municipality might be too great. Texas should avoid having judges serve in more than one office as it reduces the citizen representation.

PROPOSITION 2 (SJR 79): Consider voting No | Against | Oppose
“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.”

Reality: The Texas Water Development Board will be allowed to issue bonds, and therefore go into debt, in order to continue financing water supply, sewer service, and drainage projects in economically distressed areas.

SAFA position & rationale: Oppose Proposition 2. State is promoting additional debt programs and this programs allows the avoidance of planning & budgeting for needs.

PROPOSITION 3 (HJR 34): Consider voting Yes | For | Support
“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.”

Reality: Local government bodies in the state are able to re-appraise properties damaged in disasters, but are unable to exempt the owners from all or part of their total tax burden.

SAFA position & rationale: Support Proposition 3. Local government bodies should have more tools like this proposition to provide tax relief for property owners. This measure will help with tax reductions for people across the state, and especially those impacted by severe weather occurrences.

PROPOSITION 4 (HJR 38): Consider voting Yes | For | Support
“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.”

Reality: The Texas Constitution currently requires a simple majority vote by the Legislature to place a state income tax measure onthe ballot for voter approval to impose a state income tax. This amendment will require a super-majority vote for a future legislature to place a state income tax measure on the ballot to amend the constitution in order to impose a state income tax.

SAFA position & rationale: Support Proposition 4. Measures that prohibit the government from imposing a state income tax or increasing any other tax on residents without their consent is a common good. Voting yes will make it more difficult for a future legislature to impose harmful state income tax.

PROPOSITION 5 (SJR 24): Consider voting Yes | For | Support
“The constitutional amendment dedicating the revenue received from the existing state 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 historical sites while not increasing the rate of the sales and use taxes.”

Reality: Sales taxes on sporting goods will be dedicated to wildlife and nature preservation.

SAFA position & rationale: Support Proposition 5. Remember the passage of the lottery for Education yet not all the revenue was used for education funding. Taxes on sporting goods have been intended to finance state parks & wildlife yet this has not always been the case. This measure will require legislators to use this particular state revenue for its specific purpose to avoid misappropriations.

PROPOSITION 6 (HJR 12): Consider voting No | Against | Oppose
“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.”

Reality: Cancer Prevention & Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT) has unused monies and will be authorized to spend additional taxpayer dollars.

SAFA position & rationale: Oppose Proposition 6. This will create more debt obligations and this is not a primary role of the state. There is concerning information about CPRIT mismanagement.

PROPOSITION 7 (HJR 151): Consider voting No | Against | Oppose
“The constitutional amendment allowing increased distributions to the available school fund.”

Reality: The General Land Office or State Board of Education will have the ability to distribute up to $600 million of the school fund, up from $300 million currently. However, more money distributed does not produce better academic levels of performance. Currently, the United States ranks 25th in world academic levels; however, it ranks 2nd in expenditures. Only Norway spends more per student than America does. There needs to be greater parity within all public schools as well as within home school.

SAFA position & rationale: Oppose Proposition 7. While this will utilize additional revenue from the state’s oil and gas reserves instead of increasing the sales tax, we are against new taxes. We are also against the increase of power by a particular office that will distribute such funds, and spending money where it is not producing the desired results.

PROPOSITION 8 (HJR 4): Consider voting No | Against | Oppose
“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.”

Reality: This amendment will create a permanent fund to help with flood mitigation infrastructure.

SAFA position & rationale: Oppose Proposition 8. It would be better to plan and budget for drainage, flood mitigation and control instead of increasing the size & scope of government.

PROPOSITION 9 (HJR 95): Consider voting Yes | For | Support
“The constitutional amendment authorizing the legislature to exempt from ad valorem taxation precious metal held in a precious metal depository located in this state.”

Reality: Precious metals stored in a depository will not be subject to taxation as income-producing business assets.
SAFA position & rationale: Support Proposition 9. Voting yes will help ensure fewer taxes on any form of ad valorem taxes and should be opposed.

PROPOSITION 10 (SJR 32): Consider voting Yes | For | Support
“The constitutional amendment to allow the transfer of a law enforcement animal to a qualified caretaker in certain circumstances.”

Reality: Currently illegal due to prohibitions on “special benefits” and “gifts” and doesn’t make sense.

SAFA position & rationale: Support Proposition 10. This measure makes lots of sense as it would allow law enforcement animals to be transferred to its current caretaker/handler upon the animal’s retirement which is usually best for the animal.

Other Resources:
Texas Public Policy Foundation
Texans For Fiscal Responsibility

*Note: This Voter’s Guide does not include all of the elections, including the school boards and propositions. San Antonio Family Association encourages you to become a resource to help us educate the voting public on pro-family values candidates.

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Voter Resources: