What to Know Before Heading to the Polls

Graphic by: JC Marquez

During Early Voting, which ends Friday, and on Election Day Nov. 7, registered voters in each county will have the opportunity to accept or reject 14 proposed amendments to the state Constitution, as submitted by the 88th Texas Legislature.

The propositions cover a wide range of topics, including taxation, natural resources and age limits for elected officials.

Listed are the 14 proposed amendments as they will appear on the ballot. Below each, political science Assistant Professors Alvaro J. Corral and Andrew Smith explained their meanings and possible outcomes.

Proposition 1: “The constitutional amendment protecting the right to engage in farming, ranching, timber production, horticulture, and wildlife management.”

1. What this means: According to Corral, this is “an amendment to protect the right to farm and ranch on land that you own or lease.”
2. Possible outcomes: This may limit the ability of local governments to regulate what landowners do on private property. Its vague phrasing may benefit industrial farms by weakening regulations on them as well.

Proposition 2: “The constitutional amendment authorizing a local option exemption from ad valorem taxation by a county or municipality of all or part of the appraised value of real property used to operate a child-care facility.”

3. What this means: According to Corral, this amendment will allow county governments to exempt child care centers partially or fully from paying property taxes.
4. Possible outcomes: The reduced costs of operation will benefit child care businesses. These savings may trickle down to families in the form of reduced child care rates.

Proposition 3: “The constitutional amendment prohibiting the imposition of an individual wealth or net worth tax, including a tax on the difference between the assets and liabilities of an individual or family.”

5. What this means: This will ban the state government from imposing a state wealth tax.
6. Possible outcomes: The wealthy will have a lower tax burden. This may lead to a higher tax burden on other demographics or simply a lower state revenue overall.

“We’re sort of minimizing the areas more and more … where we can collect taxes,” Corral said.

Proposition 4: “The constitutional amendment to authorize the legislature to establish a temporary limit on the maximum appraised value of real property other than a residence homestead for ad valorem tax purposes; to increase the amount of the exemption from ad valorem taxation by a school district applicable to residence homesteads from $40,000 to $100,000; to adjust the amount of the limitation on school district ad valorem taxes imposed on the residence homesteads of the elderly or disabled to reflect increases in certain exemption amounts; to except certain appropriations to pay for ad valorem tax relief from the constitutional limitation on the rate of growth of appropriations; and to authorize the legislature to provide for a four-year term of office for a member of the board of directors of certain appraisal districts.”

7. What this means: According to Corral, this amendment will increase the amount of a homeowner’s property value that is exempt from taxation.

“So, in the past, we exempted collecting property taxes on the first $40,000 of your property,” he said. “So, this would increase that exemption to $100,000. … If you own a $250,000 home, the state can maybe only collect property taxes on $150,000 of that home.”

8. Possible outcomes: Texas homeowners will pay less in property taxes, which are currently one of the largest tax burdens on residents.

“Because we don’t collect state income taxes … a big chunk of the taxes that get taken out from the average homeowner is through property taxes,” Corral said. “ … It can become kind of onerous and surprising and unpredictable, so there are a lot of complaints about the way we collect taxes.”

This will reduce state revenues from that area and may also affect school districts, which benefit from property taxes. What’s more, renters will not benefit from this amendment.

Proposition 5: “The constitutional amendment relating to the Texas University Fund, which provides funding to certain institutions of higher education to achieve national prominence as major research universities and drive the state economy.”

9. What this means: In the 1800s, the state established the Texas University Fund to provide revenue for the University of Texas System and the Texas A&M System. This amendment will allow publicly funded universities outside of the two systems to access the Texas University Fund.
10. Possible Outcomes: Non-UT and non-Texas-A&M public universities, such as Texas Tech, will benefit from access to the Texas University Fund.

“In terms of UTRGV, UTRGV wouldn’t necessarily, in my understanding, be affected too much, because we have access to what’s called the Permanent University Fund, which is separate,” Corral said.

Proposition 6: “The constitutional amendment creating the Texas water fund to assist in financing water projects in this state.”

11. What this means: This amendment will create the Texas Water Fund to fund water projects in Texas.
12. Possible outcomes: This may expedite solutions to water-related issues throughout the state.

“Water is becoming more and more of a precious resource, so we need infrastructure to maintain and protect water resources,” Corral said.

Proposition 7: “The constitutional amendment providing for the creation of the Texas energy fund to support the construction, maintenance, modernization, and operation of electric generating facilities.”

13. What this means: According to Corral, this amendment will create the Texas Energy Fund to help maintain the state’s electrical grid.
14. Possible outcomes: This may help prevent a repeat of the 2021 electrical grid failure, potentially saving lives.

Proposition 8: “The constitutional amendment creating the broadband infrastructure fund to expand high-speed broadband access and assist in the financing of connectivity projects.”

15. What this means: This amendment will create a state fund to finance projects to increase broadband access in Texas.
16. Possible outcomes: “This amendment would be a particular boon to the rural and poor areas of the Lower Rio Grande Valley, which have some of the lowest reliable broadband [connection rates] in the country,” Smith said.

Proposition 9: “The constitutional amendment authorizing the 88th Legislature to provide a cost-of-living adjustment to certain annuitants of the Teacher Retirement System of Texas.”

17. What this means: This amendment would allow the Texas Legislature to spend $3.3 billion to raise the pensions of retired Texas teachers to keep pace with inflation.
18. Possible outcomes: “It would help with, just the fact that … a lot of retirees simply don’t have other sources of income besides their pensions and savings and what they get from social security,” Smith said. 

This would additionally allow retirees to spend more, thereby boosting the economy.

Proposition 10: “The constitutional amendment to authorize the legislature to exempt from ad valorem taxation equipment or inventory held by a manufacturer of medical or biomedical products to protect the Texas healthcare network and strengthen our medical supply chain.”

19. What this means: This amendment will exempt the inventory and equipment of medical and biomedical manufacturers from property taxes.
20. Possible outcomes: Texas has been including these items in valuation for years and the loss of such revenue may harm state revenue and local school districts.

“Now, it should be noted that the cost of this will likely be over $200 million in lost property tax revenue,” Smith said. “But the reason this could potentially be a big positive deal is that it would encourage more of these manufacturers to relocate to Texas and that would bring in more jobs in a fast-growing industry.”

Proposition 11: “The constitutional amendment authorizing the legislature to permit conservation and reclamation districts in El Paso County to issue bonds supported by ad valorem taxes to fund the development and maintenance of parks and recreational facilities.”

21. What this means: “Proposition 11 … allows El Paso County to issue municipal bonds—or property tax-funded bonds—to pay for building and maintaining public parks and recreational areas in the county,” Smith said.
22. Possible outcomes: This amendment will only impact residents of El Paso County and may lead to higher property taxes, as well as increased community health, tourism and city pride.

Proposition 12: “The constitutional amendment providing for the abolition of the office of county treasurer in Galveston County.”

23. What this means: According to Smith, this amendment will remove the Galveston County treasurer’s office and leave the County Commissioners Court in charge of appointing someone to handle its money.
24. Possible outcomes: Only residents of Galveston County will be impacted. The county may save money and processing time may be reduced.

Proposition 13: “The constitutional amendment to increase the mandatory age of retirement for state justices and judges.”

25. What this means: Currently, Texas judges are required to retire between the ages of 70 and 75. This amendment will increase the mandatory retirement age range to 75 to 79 years.
26. Possible outcomes: “The theory, by increasing the age limit, is you allow experienced judges to potentially serve for longer,” Smith said. “It is important to remember that in Texas, all judges are elected by the public. … But in theory, assuming they could keep winning elections, you would continue to have more experienced voices remain on their respective benches. Now, the counterclaim to this is that with the Republican Party dominating judicial offices from the local level on up … raising the mandatory retirement age range could potentially allow Republican judges to remain in control of … state and local areas, even in areas that are starting to drift towards the Democratic Party.”

Proposition 14: “The constitutional amendment providing for the creation of the centennial parks conservation fund to be used for the creation and improvement of state parks.” 

27. What this means: According to Smith, this amendment will increase funding for Texas state parks.
28. Possible outcomes: Increased funding will allow for improvements of access to and upkeep of sites and trails in the many Texas state parks. This may lead to increased tourism and environmental health.

Also on the ballot are candidates for local offices, which will vary by county.

For Corral, the most important amendment on the ballot is Proposition 7.

“I wasn’t here in 2021, but my parents were, and it was a really ugly situation,” he said. “That can really endanger human life, so I think that we really need to, at a bare minimum, start addressing the state of our electrical grid. … It’s kind of scary because it’s just on us. So, if the state system fails, there’s no one to bail us out.”

For Smith, the most impactful amendments on the ballot are Propositions 8 and 10.

“With reliable broadband, at this point, [it is] really a necessity rather than a luxury,” he said. “As interconnected as everyone has to be nowadays, the more people that can get access to reliable broadband, the better. And as for Proposition 10, it’s going to have a very high cost that may or may not be counterbalanced.”

In a poll on Pulse magazine’s Instagram, 87% of 53 respondents said they plan to vote. In a second poll, 81% of 43 respondents believe their vote counts. A third poll showed that nearly half of the respondents do not know what is on their ballot.

Smith said it is important to vote in the Nov. 7 election.

“State constitutional amendment elections are notorious for not having very high voter turnout, and yet, these are all extraordinarily critical,” he said. “I mean, even the amendments only affecting El Paso and Galveston counties are still going to have an impact on … hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of Texas residents. So, it’s very important that everybody get educated on these amendments. Get educated on the various local offices that are up for this election and get out and vote.”