The Texas Observer

While everybody and their dog focuses on November 2008, it’s easy to forget that there’s an election this November — and it’s a lengthy slate of propositions (16 of them!).

Each proposition amends the Texas Constitution for a specific purpose. After every legislative session, a fresh batch of amendments is dumped into the poor overstuffed document. Hardly anyone remembers what all’s in the damn thing anymore. But we should at least know exactly what we’re voting on.

So let’s just go about this like my draconian third grade teacher would have…with a, ahem, prop quiz:

1. What’s the most expensive prop?

Answer: Well, this is a tough one, because many of the propositions don’t really have a clearly legible price tag. But it would seem that Proposition 12, which involves that cuddly Texas transportation bureaucracy, earns this distinction. It reads:

The constitutional amendment providing for the issuance of general obligation bonds by the Texas Transportation Commission in an amount not to exceed $5 billion to provide funding for highway improvement projects.

It allegedly will fund non-tolled roads. The state will have to borrow $5 billion, and the debt service on that kind of borrowing will crimp future state budgets. The cancer fight proposition (#15) is a runner-up for most expensive for the same reason. It will read:

The constitutional amendment requiring the creation of the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas and authorizing the issuance of up to $3 billion in bonds payable from the general revenues of the state for research in Texas to find the causes of and cures for cancer.

Rep. Scott Hochberg (D-Houston) says the interest paid on the $3 billion borrowed by Prop. 15 could be as much as $1.6 billion.

2. What’s the cheapest?

Answer: This is an easy one. Proposition 10, which reads:

Abolishing the office of inspector of hides and animals.

Turns out we have no such inspector, and the office serves no purpose. So it’s something of a gimme. A runner-up here is Proposition 1, which would amend the Constitution to reflect the Legislature’s vote to make Angelo State University in San Angelo a part of the Texas Tech system. It’s also fairly noncontroversial, although it could lock in higher tuition at ASU.

3. Which amendment would affect the most people?

Answer: Again, tough call here. Obviously, if Prop. 15 helps to cure cancer, it will affect more people by far than all the others combined. But that’s a big ‘if’. In terms of practical impact, I’d have to choose Prop. 3, which was authored by Hochberg and reads:

The constitutional amendment authorizing the legislature to provide that the maximum appraised value of a residence homestead for ad valorem taxation is limited to the lesser of the most recent market value of the residence homestead as determined by the appraisal entity or 110 percent, or a greater percentage, of the appraised value of the residence homestead for the preceding tax year.

Hochberg notes: “Proposition 3 will provide the relief intended by the Legislature when it first approved the 10 percent appraisal cap in 1997. That cap was designed to protect homeowners from ’sticker shock’ by limiting the amount that an appraisal could increase in any year.”

Opponents of Prop. 3 argue that it’s unnecessary because the largest appraisal districts, which usually have the biggest hikes in property values, already account for “sticker shock” by reappraising every year.

And Heaven forbid we put something unnecessary in the Texas Constitution!

That’s plenty for now. We’ll have a few more prop quizzes on the other amendments as we approach the Nov. 6 vote.

by Cody Garrett

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 17th, 2007 at 10:54 am and is filed under Dollars and Sense. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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