Decipher the intricate dynamics of Texan politics and legislation with Ken Wink, a UT Tyler political science professor. Tackling more than a dozen constitutional amendments, from property tax cuts to energy, Wink also spotlights the contentious school voucher program. He’ll unravel the tussle between the Texas House and the Senate, and the governor’s political maneuvers.
Wink analyzes the notable propositions, specifically Proposition 4 relating to property tax relief and Proposition 7, allocating a staggering $5 billion to a Texas energy fund. He paints a vivid picture of how these amendments weave into the ongoing debates about public school funding and teacher pay.
MIKE LANDESS: Texans will go to the polls Nov. 7 to decide the fate of more than a dozen constitutional amendments, ranging from property tax cuts to energy. As election day draws nigh, the legislature is in a contentious special session, with school vouchers front and center. I’m Mike Landess for UT Tyler Radio. Here to sort it all out for us is UT Tyler Political Science professor, Ken Wink. Now, this is a classic House and Senate fight.
KEN WINK: I think the Senate really is in the governor’s corner on this, and it’s essentially passed a bill that is what the governor wants, which is a full-fledged voucher program that basically will fund 60,000 students at $8,000 a pop. I think the Senate’s version does give priority to students with disabilities and also students who are low income. If there are more people who want to take part than there is money available, the House really wants a scaled down version. The House for years has been against any voucher program, and so you’re already starting off with, in principle, the House is opposed. I know recently there has been a proposal in the House, which I do not think has gone very far, but the bill has been filed to have a voucher program with phase-in, so it would be done in stages, almost like a pilot project, so you would have fewer people eligible to begin with. The other thing the House wants to see is more public school funding at the same time the voucher bill goes through and also a pay raise for teachers at the same time. I think the governor’s position is that he wants his full-fledged voucher program to go through both houses first, and then he’ll talk about fully funding public education and a teacher raise.
LANDESS: It’s almost like holding it hostage politically in some ways.
WINK: In a way it is, and there does seem to be an impasse. I guess you could say, since the House at least proposed a voucher program, that’s a step in the compromised direction. But it’s been a long time coming, and the House back in the spring passed a bill saying we will never accept a voucher program and that passed something like 85 to 65. So the governor still has some work to do, I think, to get particularly rural Republicans on board to get that through the way, the legislation he wants.
LANDESS: This has been something he has just not budged on. He wants this voucher program to pass one way or another. If it doesn’t, would he call another session?
WINK: People who are watching seem to think that he will, that he is not willing to let go and will call a fourth session, which, of course, would probably be sometime in November, and so I would fully expect him to do exactly that.
LANDESS: All right, let’s talk about our constitutional amendments.
WINK: Sure.
LANDESS: There are how many? And what are they all about?
WINK: Yeah, well, there are 14 of them, and I think the big one that has been getting the most attention is Proposition 4. That’s the property tax relief. And people are focused on the increase in the homestead exemption from $40,000 to $100,000. Keep in mind that what that only applies to the public school tax. It does not apply to your property taxes that are going to the counties and the cities. But, of course, the largest part of your bill is to the public schools, and so, for instance, if you have a $200,000 home, instead of getting your house appraised at $160,000, now it would be appraised at $100,000, or assessed, I should say. It would be appraised at market value, but then you subtract $100,000 from that. So that’s significant savings for taxpayers, but that’s only $5.6 billion of tax saved. What is oftentimes missed is the other part of that, in which the school districts, cannot raise their tax rates for 2 years at least, and what will happen is the revenue that they lose from keeping their tax rates the same will be reimbursed by the state to the tune of $7.1 billion. So we’re talking about a total savings in property tax revenue for taxpayers of $12.7 billion.
LANDESS: Interesting that this sort of goes hand in hand with the discussions in Austin about whether there should be more money for public schools and whether they can pay teachers more and they have more money for supplies and that sort of thing. It at all. It’s all the same ball of wax in one way or another.
WINK: That’s right. You have a certain piece of the pie, and how you divide that up, they’re gonna be winners and losers, for sure.
LANDESS: What would you say is the next number two on that list? Not number two in the one through 14, but probably the second most visible of the Constitutional amendments that people should be aware of.
WINK: Proposition 7. This is the legislature devoting $5 billion with a “B,” to trying to- remember when we had the problem with electricity? Proposition 7 is a $5 billion payment into a Texas energy fund to support the construction, maintenance, modernization and operation of electric generating facilities. These would be operated by natural gas or oil as well, so it would be a guaranteed source of energy, which we certainly need. And that’s $5 billion. And I think again, this was a real challenge to the governor, one of the things I think he was a little bit embarrassed about when we had the brownouts and then the lack of heat at some points during the winter. And this is an effort to solve that problem or at least make it much, much better.
LANDESS: Would you like to wrap this up with some final thoughts?
WINK: Our Constitution in Texas goes back to 1876. We have a relatively old Constitution that came out of the reconstruction era, when Texas was rural. We didn’t have millions of people, and conditions were very, very different. And when that Constitution was created, it really was meant to limit what state and local governments could do. And so, as we’ve advanced into the modern era, rather than writing a new Constitution, which folks don’t seem to want to do that. We’ve had to pass constitutional amendments to allow state governments to do new things, to allow county governments to do new things that may make sense in the 21st century but that had no relevance at all back in the 19th century.
LANDESS: Get out and vote.
WINK: Get out and vote.
LANDESS: Our guest has been UT Tyler political science professor, Ken Wink. For more information on the 14 proposed amendments to the Texas Constitution, you’ll find a link on our website, KVUT.org. There you can also hear this interview again or share it. I’m Mike Landess for UT Tyler Radio.
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