Posted on 11/03/2009 11:54:02 AM PST by BuckeyeTexan
The proposed amendment would appear on the ballot as follows: "The constitutional amendment authorizing the financing, including through tax increment financing, of the acquisition by municipalities and counties of buffer areas or open spaces adjacent to a military installation for the prevention of encroachment or for the construction of roadways, utilities, or other infrastructure to protect or promote the mission of the military installation."
HJR 36 would amend the constitution to authorize the legislature to provide for the taxation of a residence homestead solely on the basis of the property's value as a residence homestead, regardless of whether the property may have a higher value if it were used for other purposes.
The proposed amendment would appear on the ballot as follows: "The constitutional amendment authorizing the legislature to provide for the ad valorem taxation of a residence homestead solely on the basis of the property’s value as a residence homestead."
The proposed amendment would appear on the ballot as follows: "The constitutional amendment providing for uniform standards and procedures for the appraisal of property for ad valorem tax purposes."
The proposed amendment would appear on the ballot as follows: "The constitutional amendment establishing the national research university fund to enable emerging research universities in this state to achieve national prominence as major research universities and transferring the balance of the higher education fund to the national research university fund."
The proposed amendment would appear on the ballot as follows: "The constitutional amendment authorizing the legislature to authorize a single board of equalization for two or more adjoining appraisal entities that elect to provide for consolidated equalizations."
The proposed amendment would appear on the ballot as follows: "The constitutional amendment authorizing the Veterans ’ Land Board to issue general obligation bonds in amounts equal to or less than amounts previously authorized."
The proposed amendment would appear on the ballot as follows: "The constitutional amendment to allow an officer or enlisted member of the Texas State Guard or other state militia or military force to hold other civil offices."
The proposed amendment would appear on the ballot as follows: “The constitutional amendment authorizing the state to contribute money, property, and other resources for the establishment, maintenance, and operation of veterans hospitals in this state.”
The proposed amendment would appear on the ballot as follows: "The constitutional amendment to protect the right of the public, individually and collectively, to access and use the public beaches bordering the seaward shore of the Gulf of Mexico."
The proposed amendment would appear on the ballot as follows: "The constitutional amendment to provide that elected members of the governing boards of emergency services districts may serve terms not to exceed four years."
The proposed amendment would appear on the ballot as follows: "The constitutional amendment to prohibit the taking, damaging, or destroying of private property for public use unless the action is for the ownership, use, and enjoyment of the property by the State, a political subdivision of the State, the public at large, or entities granted the power of eminent domain under law or for the elimination of urban blight on a particular parcel of property, but not for certain economic development or enhancement of tax revenue purposes, and to limit the legislature ’s authority to grant the power of eminent domain to an entity."
Prop 1: No
Prop 2: Yes
Prop 3: No
Prop 4: No
Prop 5: No
Prop 6: Neutral
Prop 7: Yes
Prop 8: No
Prop 9: No
Prop 10: No
Prop 11: No
http://www.aipnews.com/talk/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=9697&posts=1
(Not exactly related to 2010 TX Gubernatorial race, but pinging anyway.)
Curious as to why you think opposition to a restriction on eminent domain (prop 11) is a conservative position. Narrowing the definition of “public use” to actually mean “public use” rather than allowing any confiscation of private property - even for the purpose of simply transferring it to another more “favored” private property owner - is consistent with constitutional restraint of government power. Under the current legal environment, I saw homeowners in Hurst Texas robbed of their homes under eminent domain condemnations of their property so that the city of Hurst could then hand their homes over to Simon DeBartolo (of the San Francisco 69ers DeBartolo family) so he could expand Northeast Mall. These families were “compensated” for the taking of their property in the neighborhood of 50 cents on the dollar or less. Proposition 11 would prohibit this sort of confiscation for the purpose of transferring private property from on private party to another.
It’s extra important to have a good voter turnout this soon after the 9/12 Tea Party to let them know we are still engaged and are keeping our eyes on them. So go vote!
Why a “No” on #11? Sounds like it is meant to prevent the taking of private property to benefit other private companies?
From the link:
This is an effort to provide further protections from the abuses of eminent domain that can arise thanks to the Supreme Court decision Kelo v. City of New London (2005).
Unfortunately, the wording in the statute authorizing this Amendment is very deceptive. It was changed numerous times during the legislative session and the final version was amended to include the authorization for Amendment #4, the University funding Amendment. Needless to say that’s very shaky ground to begin with, especially when the original wording was much stronger before all the adjustments occurred.
Secondly, this authorizes the legislature to grant eminent domain authority to any undefined “entity” it wishes with a simple 2/3rds vote and we don’t believe that that’s a high enough hurdle! They’ve already granted eminent domain authority to some utilities and hospitals, do we really want that to continue with just a simple 2/3rds vote? I’d rather this one go back to the drawing board and be written up with some real teeth to it and if that’s too difficult, too bad.
Finally, the appearance of this bill is as though the legislature simply wanted to pass some kind of eminent domain restrictions and if we the people vote it down, they can say it’s our fault. Well, we’ve had enough of legislatures not doing the job that we the people sent them to do and then expecting us to live with the results. This should not only be voted down, but those legislators who openly and actively supported it should have to account for why the bill was weakened repeatedly throughout the session and why they haven’t enacted tougher restrictions already. It’s only our fault that they don’t do their jobs, if we don’t vote them out when we have the opportunity.
(I may vote yes on this. I think more restrictions on eminent domain are good, but I see the author’s point.)
See comment #6. I may vote yes on this. I am undecided right now.
"Here are our recommendations:
FOR: Props 2, 3, 5, 7, 11
AGAINST: Props 1, 4, 6, 8, 9, 10
If you have any questions about our recommendations, please e-mail us at info@afptx.org."
I'm especially concerned about #11 and eminent domain rights. (I cast my votes early today.) THANKS!
Regards . . . Penny
How is Prop #9 different than the status quo?
How is Prop #9 different than the status quo?
From the link:
Unfortunately, this Amendment would further undermine the property rights of individual home owners whose property borders those public beaches that exist in the State of Texas. The wording that is used “a free and unrestricted right to access” is very troublesome and fails to place any benefits on the side of those individual homeowners.
There already exists such a fund, but it is restricted for the use of The University of Texas, Texas A & M University, and Prairie View A & M. The new fund would be available to all Texas universities.
There is no provision in this amendment for adding money to the fund. It's just a wider division. The fund is based on revenues from land owned by the fund (mostly oil royalties) and is a legacy of the old land grant system.
Check out the vote explanations at the link provided in #1.
Did Peggy Venebale explain the reasons for their positions? I’d like to review them if you have them.
From the link:
While proponents of this say that it is an effort to increase funding for our Universities that will result in a higher profile and thus greater academic competitiveness, this is really about providing a limitation on other universities around the state so that an elite handful can have more money to play with.
Technically, this proposal wouldn’t raise taxes, as it is money that’s already been set aside for education, however we believe, as do others, that this will simply result in and encourage further reliance on the taxpayers, rather than causing universities to seek additional private funding.
The other argument being used that this would somehow elevate the profile of these “research universities” and thus provide some additional benefits to the students who attend them, is completely unsupportable with any amount of research. Most universities simply act like “compulsive gamblers and exiled royalty; there is never enough money to satisfy their desires.” That quote is from former Harvard president Derek Bok.
2/3 vote in BOTH houses. Using the word "simple" with "2/3 vote in both houses" reminds me of Fezzig and Indigo Montoya and Fezzig's repeated use of the word "inconceivable".
#3 is good only if you can be sure the Lege will remain in semi-conservative hands. I like my Appraisal District (AD)fine - I’d hate the Houston representatives to have any say in defining how the WHOLE State’s AD’s do things. I’d vote NO on #3.
CERTAINLY . . . I just sent it to you . . . (copy of the complete text of her e-mail).
That’s kind of where I am at this point. 2/3 is a pretty heavy requirement. A simple Democratic majority in either house won’t allow them to monkey with this provision.
Harvard president Derek Bok knows nothing about the Texas university system. This is about the Texas Permanent University Fund (a.k.a “the Puff”). Those universities that do not get distributions from the fund have to go to the legislature every two years for funding. The lucky three that are supported by the fund get hundreds of millions from the fund without any need for taxation.
>> Secondly, this authorizes the legislature to grant eminent domain authority to any undefined “entity” it wishes with a simple 2/3rds vote and we don’t believe that that’s a high enough hurdle!
With all due respect, that’s insane. 2/3 of a conservative Texas legislature is a helluva lot more of an impediment than the ZERO impediment currently in place on every greedy corrupt municipality and school board.
Vote YES on 11.
If something stronger ends up on the ballot, fine — vote YES on that too!
As I understand the PUF, it accounts for a small percentage of the eligible universities’ budgets. This amendment allows the legislature to define which universities would be eligible.
As long as the legislature is held by conservatives, that’s a good thing. If it’s held by liberals, then this fund could become a reward system for votes. I’m concerned about it, but you can twist my arm with more information. :) I’m open to outside influence on this one.
I hate the wiki, but here’s a link for those unfamiliar with PUF.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permanent_University_Fund
Dear Friends,
In the coming weeks, Texans will be asked to approve several amendments to our state constitution. If you are like me, you may have begun to wonder how long our constitution can get, but that train left the station long ago. Although our constitution may be growing, the amendments that we will vote on this November, will actually reduce the scope of state government and improve its operation. Passing these amendments will do nothing less than help our service men and women, protect our military bases from encroachment, make property tax appraisals fairer and preserve the sanctity of private property rights.
There has been a lot of misinformation circulating about Propositions 2, 3, and 5. I want to clarify that these amendments will NOT create a new state property tax. I would not support a state property tax and the Texas Constitution still prohibits a state property tax. Please take the time to review the analysis below and be sure to vote. Early voting is available from October 19 through 30 and Election Day is November 3. Voting locations in Harris County can be found at this link: http://www.harrisvotes.org.
May God Bless,
You convinced me. I’ll vote yes.
>> You convinced me. I’ll vote yes.
Excellent. IMHO #11 is the most important question on the ballot.
Mrs. Tick and I just got back from voting. Turnout was light; that’s disappointing. The silver lining in that bad news, I suppose, is that each vote has higher value.
The other good news is the Missus and I didn’t cancel each other out on anything, and we drew up our positions independently.
By the way, whenever you hear legislative language that sounds like "research university this research that blah blah reaserach blah major research national research" and so on, what you are hearing is the University of Houston's lobbying team. UH has been at the forefront of efforts to open up the puff. They get a huge percentage of their funding from research grants (mostly Federal) and it's like this huge manic identity trait for them.
http://www.christianvoterguide.com/
If you click on Texas, you will get a list of links to several different conservative organizations with their recommendations, such as David Barton with Wallbuilders, Heritage Alliance, Free Market Foundation (they actuallyjust show pro & con, not a recommendation), etc.
I looked them up and compared their recommendations. David Barton and Heritage were very similar except for 2 of the amendments where they differed. They each gave reasoning on why they advocated one or the other position for the conservative or more strict constitutional reasoning. It helped me to understand them and make my decision.
A big fat HELL NO.
I was at Tech when it became a "research" school. The faculty became, and continues to be, indifferent to the students. You know them little people the damn school was created to serve.
Thanks very much for posting that information. The more info we have to consider the better our choices become. :)
With 90% of precincts reporting at 9:30 PM local time, the results are as follows for the Texas constitutional amendment proposals.
Prop 1: Passed
Prop 2: Passed
Prop 3: Passed
Prop 4: Passed
Prop 5: Passed
Prop 6: Passed
Prop 7: Passed
Prop 8: Passed
Prop 9: Passed
Prop 10: Passed
Prop 11: Passed
Crud! I left out the important fact that these numbers are from Tarrant County.
Those numbers reflect the statewide results also. All of the proposals will pass.
Sadly, I knew everything would pass. What looked good at first told a different tale once you actually read the bills in full. But nooooo, idiots can’t be bothered, or can’t read English or spanish (last I heard, you had to learn English for citizenship, not that that citizenship matters either). If we can’t save ourselves at the local level, we might as well hand everything over to Dear Leader and be done with it now.
Yee Haw........:)
Goodness! Didn’t the voters study up on these?! My guess is “no.”
“We have people who were born here, who can’t read English.” ~ per DOJ lawyer
All the bonds passed in the last bond election too. It’s like pissin’ into the friggin’ wind!
It sure does seem like the average voter didn’t make any effort to review the actual amendments to inform themselves about that which they voted. It’s frustrating.
I should have posted this weeks ago and attempted to get the word out, but didn’t. I am guilty of being a slacker too, I guess.
The wording on the ballots doesn’t make it easy to understand what the amendments are really about. I think most assumed that a Republican-controlled state legislature wouldn’t propose amendments that weren’t good for Texas. What a mistake that philosophy is.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.