From Texas Standard:Election day may be on Nov. 3, but early voting in Texas officially starts today, and runs through October 30.
Chuck Lindell, state capitol reporter for the Austin American-Statesman, tells Texas Standard about the constitutional amendments on the ballot this year .
These proposed amendments are:
- Proposition 1: Raise the homestead exemption for school property taxes from $15,000 to $25,000
- Prop 2: Extend benefits for spouses of deceased, disabled U.S. veterans for the property value prior to 2011,
- Prop 3: Repeal the requirement that statewide elected officials have to live in Austin,
- Prop 4: Don't let the legislature permit a professional sports team's charitable foundation to sell raffle tickers at home games,
- Prop 5: Allow counties with up to 7,500 residents to build private roads,
- Prop 6: Add the right to hunt fish and harvest wildlife to state constitution's Bill of Rights, and
- Prop 7: Add $2.5 billion a year to build roads, transferred from the state sales tax.
Lindell says the homestead exception has a good chance of passing. Lindell notes that Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick led the fight for some of these amendments, yet they're written in "legalese" and not easy for most folks to parse, much less rally around.
"They just don't lend themselves to a major statewide campaign," he says. "We have a constitution that's made to be amended."
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