On Saturday, May 12, an important state constitutional amendment election is being held that I urge Central Texans to participate in. The question before the voters is whether to change our state constitution to enable our elderly and disabled to see their local school property taxes reduced at the same proportionate rate as the reductions already in place for other Texans.


Some of my constituents have asked me about my position on this ballot item. I tell them that I will vote "yes" and strongly urge others to do the same. Let me offer some background on what the amendment does and why it is needed.


First, it represents the fulfillment of a promise made by the Texas Legislature a year ago. Late last spring a new school property tax finance plan was adopted that cut local school property taxes by one-third.

I supported this property tax reduction, as it was clear to me that local school property taxes were too high.


We also had a school finance system in Texas that our Supreme Court said was unconstitutional and the changes we made last year under the new plan rectified this deficiency.


I also voted for the full amount of additional state funding needed to assure that our local school districts received at least the same amount of money they would have obtained under the old system. We funded more than $14 billion in local school property tax reductions in the current state budget, which is an historic accomplishment.


However, there was a problem regarding tax reduction for the elderly and disabled in the new school finance plan that required follow-up work to address.


Currently many of our elderly and disabled Texans have a homestead exemption in place that freezes their property taxes. This was an important protection found in our Texas Constitution; it was put in place to assist those with fixed incomes to help remain in their homes.


However, because the elderly and disabled who took advantage of the homestead exemption had their taxes frozen by a provision in the Texas Constitution – there was no legislative authority to lower their taxes further to reflect the one-third property tax reductions of the new school finance plan.


In short, the same tax freeze that kept property taxes for these elderly and disabled Texans from going up also had the unforeseen effect of keeping them from going down. It requires amending the Texas Constitution to remedy this situation.


I supported a constitutional amendment election at the first available opportunity, which was the upcoming spring election date. The governor declared this an emergency item to allow legislation to place this on the ballot to pass early in the current legislative session. The legislation to place this particular item on the ballot passed with overwhelming support.


On May 12, the voters of our state have an opportunity to enable our elderly and disabled Texans to enjoy the same proportionate reductions in property taxes that have already been seen by all other property owners.


So, please vote yes on May 12. The result of this item passing will be lower local school property taxes for a group of Texans who have waited patiently to have this tax cut equity item addressed.


Further information on this ballot item may be found at: http://www.tlc.state.tx.us/pubsconamend/analyses07/analysis07.pdf

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