Texas Constitution - Attempts at Revision

Attempts At Revision

Because of the unwieldiness of the state constitution, there have been attempts to draft a new constitution or to significantly revise the existing one:

• The most successful of the attempts took place in 1969, when 56 separate obsolete provisions (including the entirety of Article 13 and 22 entire sections from Articles 10, 12, and 14) were successfully repealed.
• In 1971 the Texas Legislature placed on the November 1972 ballot an Amendment which called for the Legislature to meet in January 1974 for 90 days as a constitutional convention, for purposes of drafting a new state Constitution. The measure passed (thus adding Section 2 to Article 17; the section was later repealed in November 1999) and the Legislature met. However, even with an additional 60 days added to the session, the convention failed by a mere three votes to propose a new constitution.
• In 1975, the Legislature, meeting in regular session, revived much of the work of the 1974 convention and proposed it as a set of eight amendments to the existing constitution. All eight of the amendments were overwhelmingly rejected by the voters (in 250 the state's 254 counties, all eight amendments were defeated; only in Duval and Webb counties did all eight amendments pass).
• In 1979 the Legislature placed on the ballot four amendments which had their origins in the 1974 convention; of which three were approved by the voters:
  • One amendment created a single property tax "appraisal district" in each county (for purposes of providing a single appraised value for all property in a county; previously, each taxing authority could assess property at dissimilar values)
  • Another amendment gave to the Texas Court of Appeals criminal appellate jurisdiction (previously, the Courts had jurisdiction over civil matters only; though death penalty cases still bypass this level)
  • The last amendment gave the Governor of Texas limited authority to remove appointed statewide officials
• In 1995, Senator John Montford drafted a streamlined constitution similar to the 1974 version. However, Montford resigned his seat to become chancellor of the Texas Tech University System, and his initiative subsequently died. Later that year, though, voters approved an amendment abolishing the office of State Treasurer and moving its duties to the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts office.
• In 1998, a bipartisan effort (led by Republican Senator Bill Ratliff and Democratic Representative Rob Junell) produced a rewritten constitution, with the help of students from Angelo State University (Junell's district included the San Angelo area). The second draft was submitted to the 76th Legislature, but failed to gain support in committee.