Many of the propositions approved in Tuesday’s election could affect your bank account. Here’s how.
SAN ANTONIO — On Tuesday, Texas voters had their say on 17 propositions that were on the ballot.
All 17 constitutional amendments passed with ease. KENS 5 picked five to analyze and determine how they could affect the public.
“Most constitutional amendments pass the pass about roughly a 75% plus rate on average. in fact, since 1995, only roughly 15 amendments have failed in that period,” said Jon Taylor, chair of UTSA’s Political Science Dept.
One of the 17 successful ballot measures was Proposition 3, which requires judges to deny bail for individuals accused of committing specific felonies. That includes murder, aggravated assault and indecency with a child.
Proposition 15, meanwhile, affirms that parents are the primary decision makers for their children. This goes back to the pandemic days in focusing on what authority parents have, particularly when it comes to their child’s education.
“The state constitution says, ‘I have the right to withdraw my child from this class or from this situation, and you cannot punish me or you cannot punish the child,'” Taylor said.
Proposition 7 provides property tax breaks on the homes of spouses of U.S. veterans who died in connection to their service.
“You work with your tax assessor collector, within the county. You’re going to have a form that you’re going to fill out,” Taylor said.
That process still has to be built into the state system and will go into effect next year.
Proposition 8 prohibits the state from imposing inheritance taxes, also called death taxes, which are taxes on an estate, and from taxing an estate or inheritances when they are transferred.
“We had this as basically as a law. Now you’re talking about it as a constitutional amendment, making it much more difficult in the future to repeal this,” Taylor said.
Finally, there’s Proposition 13, which increases the homestead exemption from $100,000 to $140,000. That’s the amount of a home’s value that cannot be taxed by a school district.
But, according to Taylor, “even with the homestead exemption like this, it’s still not necessarily going to be enough to create housing affordability.”
Taylor added that because the prices of homes are going up, in two to three years the increase in the homestead exemption will basically wash out for the average homeowner.