Texas Legislature Allowed to Set Municipal Charter Election Dates Amendment, SJR 54 (2017)
| Texas Legislature Allowed to Set Municipal Charter Election Dates Amendment | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Election date November 7, 2017 | |
| Topic County and municipal governance and State legislatures measures | |
| Status Not on the ballot | |
| Type Constitutional amendment | Origin State legislature |
The Texas Legislature Allowed to Set Municipal Charter Election Dates Amendment, also known as SJR 52, was not on the ballot in Texas as a legislatively referred constitutional amendment on November 7, 2017.
The measure would have authorized the state legislature to set an election date for a municipal charter amendment, a type of local ballot measure.[1]
The measure would have also provided an exception to the requirement that elections on municipal charter amendments be held at least two years apart if the legislature set the election date.[1]
Text of measure
Ballot title
The ballot title would have been as follows:[1]
| “ | The constitutional amendment authorizing a municipal charter amendment election to be held on an election date prescribed by the legislature.[2] | ” |
Constitutional changes
- See also: Article 11, Texas Constitution
The measure would have amended Section 5(a) of Article 11 of the Texas Constitution. The following underlined text would have been added:[1] Note: Hover over the text and scroll to see the full text.
(a) Cities having more than five thousand (5000) inhabitants may, by a majority vote of the qualified voters of said city, at an election held for that purpose, adopt or amend their charters. An election to amend a charter may be held on an election date prescribed by the Legislature. If the number of inhabitants of cities that have adopted or amended their charters under this section is reduced to five thousand (5000) or fewer, the cities still may amend their charters by a majority vote of the qualified voters of said city at an election held for that purpose. The adoption or amendment of charters is subject to such limitations as may be prescribed by the Legislature, and no charter or any ordinance passed under said charter shall contain any provision inconsistent with the Constitution of the State, or of the general laws enacted by the Legislature of this State. Said cities may levy, assess and collect such taxes as may be authorized by law or by their charters; but no tax for any purpose shall ever be lawful for any one year, which shall exceed two and one-half per cent. of the taxable property of such city, and no debt shall ever be created by any city, unless at the same time provision be made to assess and collect annually a sufficient sum to pay the interest thereon and creating a sinking fund of at least two per cent. thereon, except as provided by Subsection (b). Furthermore, no city charter shall be altered, amended or repealed oftener than every two years, except that a subsequent charter election may be held on a date prescribed by the Legislature even if that date falls a number of days short of two years.[2]
Path to the ballot
- See also: Amending the Texas Constitution
In Texas, a two-thirds vote in both chambers of the Texas State Legislature during one legislative session is required to refer a constitutional amendment to the ballot. Texas is one of 16 states that require a two-thirds supermajority vote in both chambers.
Sen. Larry Taylor (R-11) filed the amendment in the state legislature as Senate Joint Resolution 54 (SJR 54) on March 9, 2017. The Texas Senate approved the amendment 31 to 0 on May 9, 2017. The measure did not receive a floor vote in the Texas House of Representatives.[3]
Senate vote
May 9, 2017[3]
| Texas SJR 54 Senate Vote | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Result | Votes | Percentage | ||
 Yes | 31 | 100.00% | ||
| No | 0 | 0.00% | ||
See also
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Texas Legislature, "Senate Joint Resolution 54," accessed May 9, 2017
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source. Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; name "quotedisclaimer" defined multiple times with different content - ↑ 3.0 3.1 Texas Legislature, "SJR 54 Overview," accessed May 9, 2017
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