{"id":39635,"date":"2019-11-04T00:00:06","date_gmt":"2019-11-04T00:00:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=39635"},"modified":"2019-11-04T00:00:06","modified_gmt":"2019-11-04T00:00:06","slug":"still-a-need-to-revamp-the-texas-constitution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=39635","title":{"rendered":"Still a need to revamp the Texas Constitution"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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I am no fan of the Texas Constitution. I don’t like having to vote on amendments every other year. I don’t believe the Constitution works as well as it would work if it were modeled more like the U.S. Constitution.<\/p>\n

I’ll give you an example of what I mean.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, those few Texans who bother to vote will get to decide on a constitutional amendment that has no real meaning.<\/em> It would make it more difficult to enact a personal income tax in Texas. Here’s the deal: We already have an amendment to the Texas Constitution that requires voters to approve a state income tax. The proposed amendment on the Tuesday ballot makes it more difficult for the Legislature to refer a state income tax to voters for their approval or likely rejection.<\/p>\n

What’s more, the amendment already on the books was enacted after an earlier<\/em> Legislature approved a law requiring a statewide vote to approve a state income tax.<\/p>\n

Texans will decide the fate of 10 Texas constitutional amendments all told.<\/p>\n

This is an absurd way to govern a state as huge, diverse, modern, cosmopolitan and sophisticated as Texas.<\/p>\n

The 1876 Texas Constitution has been saddled with roughly 700 amendments. They all have gone to the voters for their approval. Except that constitutional amendment elections — which occur every odd-numbered year after the Legislature adjourns in May — usually draw paltry voter turnouts. By “paltry” I mean, well, dismal, abysmal, minuscule.<\/em> These elections usually do not reflect rank-and-file Texans’ view of the proposed amendments. We need to do a much better job of boosting voter turnout \u2026 but that’s another story for another day.<\/p>\n

The state came close to changing the Texas governing document. There was a serious move toward convening a constitutional convention in 1974. It collapsed.<\/p>\n

The federal Constitution has been amended just 27 times. Congress refers amendments to the states, which then charge their legislative assemblies with the task of ratifying the amendment. If three-fourths of the states’ legislatures ratify the amendment, it gets added to the U.S. Constitution.<\/p>\n

We have the federal court system to interpret whether laws are constitutional. The U.S. Constitution can get rickety at times. It is facing a serious test of its durability and strength now with the pending impeachment of the president of the United States. I am certain the U.S. Constitution will survive.<\/p>\n

The Texas Constitution was the product of a government principle that didn’t trust the Legislature to enact certain laws without an endorsement of voters. It’s a creaky document that seems beyond<\/em> antique as we prepare to commence the third decade of the 21st century.<\/p>\n

Will the Legislature ever find the will to tackle serious reform of the Texas Constitution? Oh, probably not in my lifetime. I just want to put it on the record that I believe a major Texas governmental makeover is long overdue.<\/p>\n\n

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I am no fan of the Texas Constitution. I don’t like having to vote on amendments every other year. I don’t believe the Constitution works as well as it would work if it were modeled more like the U.S. Constitution. I’ll give you an example of what I mean. On Tuesday, those few Texans who … Continue reading Still a need to revamp the Texas Constitution<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[1708,4596,5043],"class_list":["post-39635","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-state-news","tag-federal-judiciary","tag-texas-constitution","tag-us-constitution"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39635","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=39635"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39635\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39638,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39635\/revisions\/39638"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=39635"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=39635"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=39635"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}