Election Day Primer

Everything you need to know before you vote today

(Photo Attribution: University of Texas at Arlington News Service Photograph Collection, CC BY 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons, URL https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Students_voting_in_Fall_Elections,_University_of_Texas_at_Arlington_(10005980).jpg)

Texans are heading to the polls today. There are several ballot measures concerning everything from a “right to ranch” to whether El Paso gets new public parks. Here is what you need to know before you vote:

Prop 1

What is it: Prop 1 seeks to establish a constitutional right to farm/ranch in Texas.

Pros/Cons: Ultimately the cons outweigh the pros. While establishing a right to farm/ranch would be good for strengthening the legal rights of Texas’s most fabled industry, the amendment as written would hurt small ranchers and farmers by allowing bad actors (like some feedlots) to damage their property with impunity.

Read more: 'Right to Farm' or 'Right to Harm', says FARFA

Recommended vote: No

Prop 2

What is it: Authorizes an exemption from ad valorem (value-added) taxation for the appraised value of real property used to operate a child-care facility.

Pros/Cons: There are no pros in the opinion of Cowtown Caller. This is corporate welfare. Prop 2 would require local taxpayers to pay for child-care facilities that already receive major federal government subsidies and other benefits. This is especially detestable because it would come from the pockets of Texas homemakers.

Read more: Listen to (American Hero) Phyllis Schlafly talk about anything for 5 seconds, and you’ll instantly detest this proposition.

Recommended vote: No

Prop 3

What is it: Prohibiting the imposition of an individual wealth or net worth tax.

Pros/Cons: Theoretically this could deprive the state treasury of revenue or an opportunity to create revenue but the state is currently running a $32 billion surplus. Tax cuts are always a good idea.

Recommended vote: Yes

Prop 4

What is it: Granting the legislature the authority to set a temporary cap on the highest assessed value of real estate properties, excluding primary residences, for the purpose of ad valorem taxation; elevating the exemption threshold for ad valorem taxation by school districts on primary residences from $40,000 to $100,000; adjusting the limit on ad valorem taxes imposed by school districts on primary residences of senior citizens or disabled individuals to account for increases in specific exemption levels; permitting certain allocations aimed at ad valorem tax relief to be exempt from the constitutional restriction on the growth rate of appropriations; and enabling the legislature to establish a four-year tenure for members of the board of directors in select appraisal districts.

Pros/Cons: The con is that this is temporary and will only have a small impact on the numerous negative shocks Bidenomics (inflation, high-interest rates) has inflicted on Texas. The pro is that it is a tax cut.

Recommended vote: Yes

Prop 5

What is it: Increases the Texas University Fund

Pros/Cons: This may help Texas universities continue to be successful in recruiting top students. However, our universities are bloated bureaucracies that have gorged themselves on federal funds and parental dollars. An increase in funding is unconscionable while these practices continue.

Recommended vote: No, horns down

Prop 6

What is it: Establishes a Texas water fund to finance water projects in this state.

Pros/Cons: Helps Texans get clean water. However, it also creates another state agency.

Read more: Report: Toxic herbicide found in many Texans' drinking water

Recommended vote: Yes

Prop 7

What is it: Creates the Texas Energy Fund to aid the construction, maintenance, modernization, and operation of electric generating facilities.

Pros/Cons: Helps Texas’s famously inadequate power grid (refer to Snowvid 2021 and summer 2022). However, this bill does not require updated or newly created power grids to be secure against espionage, sabotage, and attack.

Recommended vote: No position

Prop 8

What is it: Creates a broadband fund to support high-speed broadband access infrastructure.

Pros/Cons: Could help the development of internet-dependent projects in the state. It will almost certainly become a corporate welfare fund in a few years when technology advances.

Recommended vote: No

Prop 9

What is it: Gives a cost-of-living adjustment to retired teacher’s pensions.

Pros/Cons: This will help Texas teachers adjust to inflation in the Biden economy. It will also cost the state billions.

Recommended vote: Yes

Prop 10

What is it: Authorizes the legislature to exempt from ad valorem (value-added) taxation equipment or inventory held by a manufacturer of medical or biomedical products to protect the Texas healthcare network and strengthen our medical supply chain.

Pros/Cons: There are no pros. This is corporate welfare for Pfizer that will (again) be shouldered by Texas taxpayers.

Recommended vote: No

Prop 11

What is it: Authorizes the legislature to permit conservation and reclamation districts in El Paso County to issue bonds supported by ad valorem (value-added) taxes to fund the development and maintenance of parks and recreational facilities.

Pros/Cons: Could help maintain public parks. Creates new taxation authority in El Paso.

Recommended vote: No

Prop 12

What is it: Provides for the abolition of the office of county treasurer in Galveston County.

Pros/Cons: Reduces the size of government. However, eliminating Galveston’s treasurer would require the county commission to assume his role. This would mean that the treasurer is no longer accountable to the people but to the county commission.

Recommended vote: No

Prop 13

What is it: Increases the mandatory retirement age for judges.

Pros/Cons: Could allow experienced judges to serve the state longer. Runs the risk of allowing judges with serious mental decline to stay on the bench.

Recommended vote: We need younger minds in every station of government across this country, vote no.

Prop 14

What is it: Provides the funds for the creation of the Centennial Park Fund which will help improve and expand state parks.

Pros/Cons: This could help improve Texas’s magnificent park system. Prop 14 is mostly a budgetary trick to get park spending off the budget sheets.

Recommended vote: Yes