Andrew Teas

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Chapter 19 The Texas Constitution

• Andrew Teas
• Government 2301
• Houston Community College

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Case Study School Funding

• Almost everyone values high-quality education.
  From political decision-makers to business
  leaders, school officials to parents, and the
  school kids themselves, good public education is
  seen as a necessary ingredient in personal and
  public success.
• However, as this case study illustrates, it has
  taken a huge constitutional debate through the
  court system and the legislature to try to figure
  out how to pay for high-quality education for
  Texas public school students.

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Case Study School Funding

• Historically, public school funding has been
  based on local property taxes.
• While the average Texan paid almost 1,400 in
  property taxes to support public education, there
  is considerable disparity in financial resources
  among school districts.
• The Texas Supreme Court ruled unanimously in 1989
  that the Texas system of financing public
  education was unconstitutional in Edgewood v.
  Kirby.
• Property-rich school districts have the capacity
  to raise many times more revenue than
  property-poor school districts through local
  property taxes.

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Case Study School Funding

• In response to the Edgewood case and in an effort
  to equalize school funding, the legislature
  eventually established a system where property
  tax rates are capped and wealthy districts are
  forced to transfer some of their revenue to
  poorer districts.
• Critics call the system the Robin Hood Plan.
• In 2005 the Texas Supreme Court again declared
  the Texas system for funding schools
  unconstitutional, claiming that elements of the
  Robin Hood Plan amounted to a statewide property
  tax that is not permitted under the Texas
  constitution.
• The Texas Constitution requires that all people
  be treated equally and that the education system
  be efficient.

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State Constitutions

• State Constitution - fundamental law, framework
  by which a state government is organized
• Limitation Cannot preempt federal authority
• Different states different forms
• Some reflect U.S. Constitution
• Some different designs (Nebraska unicameral
  legislature)
• Direct democracy (California I R process)
• Some change more frequently, often amended
• Superlegislation

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Republic Of Texas 1836
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Texas Constitution - Background

• Republic of Texas joined union in 1845
• First Constitution patterned after U.S.
  Constitution
• Broad, general
• Governor appointed judiciary, most executive
  officials

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Texas Constitution of 1845
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Texas Constitution - Background

• 1850 New Texas Constitution reflected principal
  of Jacksonian Democracy
• Most executive and judicial officials elected
  independently
• Long ballot
• 1861 Texas Joins Confederacy

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Texas Constitution - Background

• 1866 Civil War lost, Texas re-admitted to Union
  with constitution similar to 1845 document.
• 1869 Constitution forced by reconstruction-era
  federal government (Radical Republicans)
• 1876 Constitution (heavily amended) is still in
  effect today

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Richard Coke, Governor of Texas, 1874 - 1876
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Constitutional Convention of 1875

• Fall, 1875, 83 Texans met in Austin
• Group included some Republicans, some African
  Americans
• Majority conservative Democrats
• Grangers
• Post-Civil War Thought
• Distrust of centralized power
• Distrust of big business
• Constitution finished in 3 months, adopted 2-1

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Constitutional Convention of 1875

• Mr. Martin, of Navarro, made a furious onslaught
  against woman suffrage. He said the Alabama
  Convention had transacted its business and
  adjourned, and if such a question as this - the
  discussion of the right of a woman to a husband,
  a new bonnet, a baby, and a cradle - was to be
  injected into the Texas Convention, there was no
  knowing when they would finish their work."
• - Debates of the Constitutional Convention of
  1875, October 4.
• (Mr. Martin's opinion notwithstanding, the motion
  to deny women the right to vote was defeated and
  referred to a committee, where it disappeared
  quietly. On a more enlightened note, the
  convention a few weeks later voted 62-9 to
  approve a measure protecting the property rights
  of women from "drunken and reckless husbands.")

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Texas Constitution of 1876
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Signature page - Texas Constitution of 1876
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Overview Texas Constitution

• 80,000 words, one of nations longest
• Bill of Rights (positive phrasing, stronger)
• Line-item veto for governor
• Long ballot Jacksonian design
• Education
• ". . . it shall be DUTY OF THE LEGISLATURE OF THE
  STATE to establish and make suitable provision
  for the support and maintenance of an efficient
  system of public free schools"

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Constitutional Change

• Judicial interpretation
• ". . . it shall be DUTY OF THE LEGISLATURE OF THE
  STATE to establish and make suitable provision
  for the support and maintenance of an efficient
  system of public free schools
• Edgewood v. Kirby
• Practice and Experience
• Power of Lieutenant Governor
• Amendment

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S.J.R. 14

• 81R1163 DRH-D
•  
• By  Wentworth S.J.R. No. 14
•  A JOINT RESOLUTION
• proposing a constitutional amendment to allow the
  legislature to override a veto of the governor
  following a legislative session.
• BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF
  TEXAS
• SECTION 1.  Section 14, Article IV, Texas
  Constitution, is amended to read as follows
• Sec. 14.  (a) Every bill which shall have passed
  both houses of the Legislature shall be presented
  to the Governor for his approval. If he approve
  he shall sign it but if he disapprove it, he
  shall return it, with his objections, to the
  House in which it originated, which House shall
  enter the objections at large upon its journal,
  and proceed to reconsider it. If after such
  reconsideration, two-thirds of the members
  present agree to pass the bill, it shall be sent,
  with the objections, to the other House, by which
  likewise it shall be reconsidered and, if
  approved by two-thirds of the members of that
  House, it shall become a law but in such cases
  the votes of both Houses shall be determined by
  yeas and nays, and the names of the members
  voting for and against the bill shall be entered
  on the journal of each House respectively.

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S.J.R. 14

• (b) If any bill shall not be returned by the
  Governor with his objections within ten days
  (Sundays excepted) after it shall have been
  presented to him, the same shall be a law, in
  like manner as if he had signed it, unless the
  Legislature, by its adjournment, prevent its
  return, in which case it shall be a law, unless
  he shall file the same, with his objections, in
  the office of the Secretary of State and give
  notice thereof by public proclamation within
  twenty days after such adjournment.
• (c) If any bill presented to the Governor
  contains several items of appropriation he may
  object to one or more of such items, and approve
  the other portion of the bill. In such case he
  shall append to the bill, at the time of signing
  it, a statement of the items to which he objects,
  and no item so objected to shall take effect. If
  the Legislature be in session, he shall transmit
  to the House in which the bill originated a copy
  of such statement and the items objected to shall
  be separately considered. If, on
  reconsideration, one or more of such items be
  approved by two-thirds of the members present of
  each House, the same shall be part of the law,
  notwithstanding the objections of the Governor.
  If any such bill, containing several items of
  appropriation, not having been presented to the
  Governor ten days (Sundays excepted) prior to
  adjournment, be in the hands of the Governor at
  the time of adjournment, he shall have twenty
  days from such adjournment within which to file
  objections to any items thereof in the office of
  the Secretary of State and make proclamation of
  the same, and such item or items shall not take
  effect.

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S.J.R. 14

• (d)  The Legislature shall meet to reconsider any
  bill disapproved by the Governor under Subsection
  (a) of this section or any item of appropriation
  in a bill to which the Governor objects under
  Subsection (c) of this section if the bill or
  statement of objection to the item of
  appropriation is
• (1)  returned to the House in which the bill
  originated on or after the third day before the
  date of adjournment of the session at which the
  bill was passed or
• (2)  filed in the office of the Secretary of
  State after the adjournment of the session at
  which the bill was passed.
• (e)  The period for reconsideration under
  Subsection (d) of this section begins at 10 a.m.
  on the day following the last day on which the
  Governor is authorized to file a disapproval or
  objection in the office of the Secretary of State
  and may not exceed five consecutive days. During
  this period, unless the Legislature has been
  called into special session by the Governor, the
  Legislature may not consider any subject other
  than the reconsideration of bills or items of
  appropriation described by Subsection (d) of this
  section. Reconsideration of a bill or item of
  appropriation during this period is conducted in
  the manner provided by Subsection (a) or (c) of
  this section, as applicable.

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S.J.R. 14

• SECTION 2.  This proposed constitutional
  amendment shall be submitted to the voters at an
  election to be held November 3, 2009. The ballot
  shall be printed to provide for voting for or
  against the proposition "The constitutional
  amendment to allow the legislature to override a
  veto of the governor following a legislative
  session."

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Texas Constitutional Amendment Assignment

• Find information about the 11 proposed amendments
  to the Texas Constitution voters will consider on
  November 3
• http//www.tlc.state.tx.us/pubsconamend/pubsconame
  nd.html
• http//www.hro.house.state.tx.us/focus/amend81.pdf
  
• Choose two
• Write a report explaining the background, what
  each would do, who seems to be for and against,
  and what you think about it.
• Report due Thursday, Sept. 24