Governorship
Briscoe was inaugurated as the forty-first governor of Texas on January 16, 1973.
During his two terms as governor, Briscoe balanced increasing demands for more state services and a rapidly growing population. As the governor elected during a period of social unrest and skepticism about the motives of elected officials, he helped restore integrity to a state government fallen into disgrace as a result of the Sharpstown scandals. Briscoe's terms as governor led to a landmark events and achievements, including the most extensive ethics and financial disclosure bill in state history, passage of the Open Meetings and Open Records legislation, and strengthened laws regulating lobbyists. Briscoe also presided over the first revision of the state's penal code in one hundred years.
Briscoe added $4 billion in new state funds for public education and higher education, increased teacher salaries by the highest percentage in history, and raised salaries for state employees as well. He expanded services to handicapped Texans by the department of Mental Health and Mental Retardation, and established the first toll-free hotline for runaway children. He appointed a larger number of women and minorities to positions in Texas state government than any previous governor, appointed the first African American members to state boards, and named the first African American district judge. No new state taxes were passed during Briscoe's terms as governor, making him the first governor since World War II to hold the line on both new state taxes or increasing existing ones.
As governor, he focused on the maintenance and efficiency of existing government agencies as opposed to the creation of new ones. As a veteran rancher, Briscoe also worked to help the farmers and ranchers of the state during his tenure. This included the eradication of the screw worm on both sides of the Rio Grande River.
In the 1974 general election – the first for a four-year term in Texas since 1873 – Briscoe defeated the Republican nominee, former Lubbock Mayor Jim Granberry, by a wide margin and carried 247 out of 254 counties. Briscoe garnered 1,016,334 votes (61 percent) to Granberry's 514,725 votes (31 percent) in a heavily Democratic year. Granberry earlier had defeated Odell McBrayer, a "New Right" candidate, in the Republican primary. In the Briscoe-Granberry race, Ramsey Muñiz ran again for governor and polled 93,295 votes on the La Raza party. Another approximately 30,000 ballots were cast for assorted minor candidates. Briscoe's second term began on January 21, 1975, making him the first Texas governor to serve a full four-year term during his six years in office. Republican Edmund J. Davis had served a four-year term from 1869 to 1873, but there were no two-year terms at the time of his tenure under the Texas Constitution of 1869.
In 1974 and 1975, Briscoe undercut two attempts to write a new constitution for the state of Texas. He said that the proposals before the legislature, acting as a constitutional convention in 1974, and later, in 1975, before the voters, would cause expansion of government and weaken the executive branch, already considered too weak by most political scientists. In addition to his accomplishments as governor, Briscoe served as chairman of the Southern Governors Association, presided over the Interstate Oil Compact Commission, served on the National Petroleum Council, and was on the executive committee of the National Governor's Association.
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