Early voting is open. Election Day is Tuesday, November 4. If you live in Richardson, your ballot will have 17 Texas constitutional amendments on it, and if you also live in the Richardson ISD, it will have three RISD bond propositions for you to vote for.
In general, Texas constitutional amendments serve one of two purposes. Either they are giveaways to the rich (ask yourself if Scrooge McDuck would be for them or not), or they are panders to the GOP base. They are placed on the ballot by the legislature, which is in the firm control of business interests and/or the far right of the GOP. (Just last week, the Texas GOP voted to censure five of its own members in the Texas House for being insufficiently conservative. These included north Texas representatives Angie Chen Button, Jeff Leach, Morgan Meyer, and Jared Patterson!) Still, there are some amendments I find to be reasonable. To find out which, read on. Also, at the end, I'll have something to say about those RISD propositions.
Texas Constitutional Amendments
- Proposition 1; Provides a reliable source of funding for Texas State Technical Colleges. Any time the Texas legislature is funding education, we ought to cheer. Vote YES.
- Proposition 2: Prohibits the imposition of a tax on the realized or unrealized capital gains. The wealthier you are, the greater the percentage of your income comes from capital gains, not weekly paychecks. This amendment benefits primarily the rich. My simple perspective on all amendments is to suspect the Texas legislature of favoring the rich and that means, indirectly, imposing a bigger burder on the middle class and poor. Vote NO.
- Proposition 3: Requires the denial of bail under certain circumstances to persons accused of certain offenses punishable as a felony. I don't know what case prompted this reaction, but it doesn't matter. There is a legal maxim that "Hard cases make bad law." It means that an extreme case is a poor basis for a general law. Let the courts deal with the nuances of individual cases. Don't try to write a one rule that fits all cases. Vote NO.
- Proposition 4: Dedicate a portion of the revenue derived from state sales and use taxes to the Texas water fund. If there is one issue absolutely vital to Texas's future, it's water. Whenever the legislature is willing to devote money to an issue this important, voters need to support it. Vote YES.
- Proposition 5: Exempt animal feed held by an owner for retail sale from personal property taxes. This is the kind of detail that Texas puts into its constitution. Why should animal feed get a tax break and not other businesses with their own inventory? Quit using the constitution to carve out tax breaks for one kind of business over another. Vote NO.
- Proposition 6: Prohibit the state from taxing securities transactions, such as the buying and selling of stocks and bonds. Buy and sell almost anything else and you pay sales tax. Why should the sale of stocks and bonds be exempt from taxes? Quit using the constitution to carve out tax breaks for one kind of business over another. Vote NO.
- Proposition 7: Provide a property tax exemption for spouses of veterans who died from a condition or disease related to their service. I don't know why this has to be a constitutional amendment, but as it's most likely to benefit the poor and middle class (who make up the majority of veterans), I'll set aside my usual aversion to using the constitution for carving out tax breaks for a lucky few. Vote YES.
- Proposition 8: Prohibit the legislature from imposing death taxes. There are so many reasons to dislike this. Starting with calling it death taxes. The dead don't pay the tax. The living do. Call it an estate tax or an inheritance tax. Next, Texas doesn't have either. This constitutional amendment is a pander to the base, to those who expect to win the lottery (and there are apparently plenty of such people). Finally, an estate tax is an alternative to property taxes and sales taxes. Why ban one in the constitution and not the others? It's illogical. Vote NO.
- Proposition 9: Prohibit cities and school districts from taxing business personal property, including inventory, computers, office furniture, manufacturing equipment, vehicles, machinery, and supplies. Public schools are financed primarily by homeowners through property taxes. Business tax breaks such as what this amendment promotes put public schools under even greater financial pressure. We need overall public school finance reform, not this. Vote NO.
- Proposition 10: Exempt a home that has been destroyed by fire from property taxes. This raises so many questions. Why "destroyed" and not just significantly damaged? Why "by fire" and not, say, by flood or tornado? It's one of those bills that are impossible to be against, even though a good bill would have dealt with the questions this bad bill raises. Still... Vote YES.
- Proposition 11: Increase the school district property tax homestead exemption for persons who are age 65 or older or who have disabilities. How can one be against a tax break for the elderly or disabled? Even though it might be better to tax exemptions based on a household's ability to pay. Not all senior adults or persons with disabilities are low income. Our governor is 67 years old and disabled...and rich. Why should he get a tax break and not the working poor? There are better ways to structure the tax code. Still, there are plenty of elderly who could benefit from this. So... Vote YES.
- Proposition 12: Changes who selects the members of the State Commission on Judicial Conduct (SCJC), which investigates judicial misconduct. As you might imagine it gives the governor more power and gives the Texas Bar less power. Giving the chief executive *more* power is out of keeping with Texas's history and heritage of putting checks and balances on government. Vote NO.
- Proposition 13: Increases the amount of the homestead exemption by a school district from $100,000 to $140,000. A good thing about this amendment is that it applies across the board and isn't a tax break just for the rich or business. A bad thing is that unless it's paired with overall public school finance reform, it will just put a bigger burden on public schools. Still... Vote YES.
- Proposition 14: Establish a Dementia Prevention and Research Institute of Texas. Any time the government is increasing medical research, it's something to cheer. Vote YES.
- Proposition 15: Affirms that parents are the primary decision makers for their children. This law is the poster child of pandering to the base. It affirms something that is already true. Parental rights are firmly established by years of legislation and court decisions. Proposition 15 is so vague and potentially broad in its impact that it opens the courthouse doors to frivolous lawsuits. Vote NO.
- Proposition 16: States that a voter must be a United States citizen. Regardless what I said about the last proposition, *this* one is the poster child of pandering to the base. The Texas constitution explicitly requires one to be registered to vote and to register you must be a citizen. It follows that to vote you must be a citizen. This proposition has zero impact on the law in Texas. Zero. It's pandering. Don't encourage this kind of bad behavior by the legislature. Vote NO.
- Proposition 17: Provide a tax exemption to property owners for the assessed value of the property for border security infrastructure. This is a tax break for property owners on the border with Mexico who have gotten the government to build "the wall" on their property and now realize that their property value might go up and, hence, their taxes. So they now want a tax break. Vote NO.
Richardson ISD Bonds
This one is easy. The Texas legislature has so failed public schools in this state that I'm willing to give local schools broad latitude in trying to deal with the lack of funding and support from the state. If that means issuing bonds, so be it. That's the system the state created.
- Proposition A: Complete the middle school transition for the remaining six junior high campuses, Build an CTE (Career and Technical Education) Center, renovate the Environmental Studies Center, and refresh elementary school restrooms and furniture across the district. All of these are worthy measures. Some say RISD just closed four schools, why do we need to build more? RISD has 55 schools. Some need replacing. All need regular maintenance. Times change. The transition to middle schools, the desire to offer pre-K to all, the desire to improve the offerings of career and technical education to students across the whole district, all of these put pressures on the existing schools in the district. So sometimes we need to renovate or even replace older schools. Vote YES.
- Proposition B: Acquire technology infrastructure, including computers, tablets and other technology devices. There are compelling arguments that children learn better from face-to-face interaction with teachers than screens, and brain development of young children benefits more from having them write words with pencil and paper than hunting and pecking keys on a keyboard. These benefits lessen with age. In any case, they do not eliminate the many benefits that electronic devices bring to education, which only grow with age. Schools should no more be device free than business should be. Vote YES.
- Proposition C: Maintain stadium facilities, including improvements to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act, turf replacement, and new LED lighting. Athletics is part of physical education. A certain amount of maintenance is needed for any facilities operated by schools. Stadiums are no exception. Vote YES.
"In the polling booth,
My choices are yes or no.
This choice is easy."
—h/t ChatGPT
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