Constitutional amendment also on ballot tomorrow

Tomorrow's special election to fill the vacant at-large city council seat has been in the local news often enough lately. But there's something else on the ballot that hasn't been given as much long-term publicity: a proposed Constitutional amendment. In the state of Texas, amendments to the Constitution must be ratified by a majority of voters - even if those voters only make up about eight percent of the total voter pool, which is the expected turnout for tomorrow's election.

The proposed amendment looks like this:

The constitutional amendment authorizing the legislature to provide for a reduction of the limitation on the total amount of ad valorem taxes that may be imposed for public school purposes on the residence homesteads of the elderly or disabled to reflect any reduction in the rate of those taxes for the 2006 and 2007 tax years.

An Austin staffer told the Athens Review that in short, the amendment would allow the legislature to compress by one third the property taxes that had been frozen for those over 65 and the disabled. The amendment comes on the heels of last year's property tax reform. With that legislation, homeowners were promised a total tax cut of $1 billion this year, but it did not affect those with frozen tax rates. Many of these citizens already pay reduced tax rates, but legislators think it is only fair that the recent cuts apply to them as well.

Don't forget to vote tomorrow, in this election and in the city council one. For information about when and where to vote, click here.