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Amendments: What to look for when voting
By Mark Homer
Contributor
Published November 1, 2009
(Editor’s note: District 3 state Rep. Mark Homer, D-Paris, presents information and his viewpoint on the 11 proposed Texas Constitutional Amendments on the ballot in Tuesday’s election in this two-part series. Check the Monday edition of The Paris News for the second installment.)
This Tuesday, Nov. 3, Texans will have the opportunity to vote on 11 proposed amendments to the Texas Constitution, recently passed during the 81st Legislative Session. If approved by a majority of registered voters, these amendments become permanent. Therefore, it is important we all exercise our civic duty and participate.
In the past few weeks I have received numerous questions as to what some of the ballot language means, so I would like to provide you with some ballot key terms and information that you might find helpful.
AMENDMENT 1: Buffers for Military Facilities
Authorizes cities and counties to issue bonds and use tax revenue to acquire buffer areas or open spaces next to a military facility to protect them from encroaching development.
Key Terms to Look For on the Ballot:
•Tax increment financing: A method of financing land purchases by the city or county under which the city or county pledges increases in property tax revenues to repay debt.
•Buffer areas: Areas of land next to or surrounding a particular parcel of land (in this case, a military base or other military installation). This land acts as a “buffer” between the military installation and the surrounding property.
AMENDMENT 2: Property Tax Appraisals for Resident Homesteads
Authorizes the legislature to provide for the ad valorem taxation of a resident homestead solely on the basis of the property’s value as a resident homestead, eliminating the consideration of highest and best use of the property.
Key Terms to Look For on the Ballot:
• Ad valorem taxation: The legal term for property tax.
•Residence homestead: Residential property on which the owner lives.
It is very important for voters to know that this proposition will not create a way for the state to tax property. Instead, the amendment would require the appraisal district to appraise your property solely on its value as residential property. It would change an existing rule that allows appraisal districts to appraise your residential property based on what would be the “highest and best use” of the land, which could include commercial development.
AMENDMENT 3: Uniform Property Appraisal Standards
Provides for uniform standards and procedures for the appraisal of property for property tax purposes.
Current law requires appraisal standards and procedures to be developed locally (where the taxation takes place). This amendment would allow the legislature to put into place uniform standards and procedures for property appraisal across the state. This would not allow a state property tax. In fact, the state of Texas is constitutionally prohibited from assessing a tax on property.
AMENDMENT 4: Establishing More Tier One Public Universities
Creates the National Research University Fund to help Texas’ emerging research universities achieve national prominence as major research universities.
Key Terms to Look For on the Ballot:
•National Research University Fund: A new fund to be administered by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB), which oversees higher education in the state. The fund would provide a dedicated source of funding for research at public universities.
Currently, only three Texas universities – UT Austin, Texas A&M and Rice – qualify as Tier One campuses. Passing this amendment would free up more than $400 million (money that the state has already set aside for higher education but not spent) to create more Tier One powerhouses out of other existing Texas universities. This in turn will bring back the brightest of Texas’ high school graduates, drive our economy into the 21st Century and have a profound effect on future generations of students.
If you have not already voted during early voting, I hope you will take the time out of your day on Tuesday to participate in this important step to improving the great state we live in. Personally, after reviewing these propositions and analyzing their effects on the economy and Texans’ way of life, I have chosen to vote “yes” on all of them. Whether you vote yes or no, I do hope you will choose to have your voice heard during this constitutional election.
District 3 state Rep. Mark Homer, D-Paris, represents Delta, Franklin, Hopkins, Lamar, Red River and Titus counties in the Texas Legislature.
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