Texas Proposition 1, Property Tax Exemption for Partially Disabled Veteran with Donated House Amendment (2017)

Texas Proposition 1
Election date November 7, 2017
Topic Taxes and Property
Status a Approved
Type Constitutional amendment	Origin State legislature

2017 measures
November 7, 2017
Texas Proposition 7
Texas Proposition 4
Texas Proposition 6
Texas Proposition 3
Texas Proposition 5
Texas Proposition 1
Texas Proposition 2

Texas Proposition 1, the Property Tax Exemption for Partially Disabled Veteran with Donated House Amendment, was on the ballot in Texas as a legislatively referred constitutional amendment on November 7, 2017. It was approved.

A "yes" vote supported this amendment to allow the legislature to provide partially-disabled veterans or their surviving spouses with a property tax exemption equal to the percentage of their disability if the veteran's home was donated to him or her by a charity for less than market value.

A "no" vote opposed this amendment to allow the legislature to provide partially-disabled veterans or their surviving spuses with a property tax exemption equal to the percentage of their disability if the veteran's home was donated to him or her by a charity for less than market value.

Election results

Proposition 1
Result		Votes	Percentage
a Yes		754,739	86.00%
No		122,864	14.00%

Election results from Texas Elections Office

Overview

Amendment design

Proposition 1 allowed the Texas State Legislature to pass bills to provide partially-disabled veterans or their surviving spouses with a property tax exemption if the veteran's home was donated to him or her by a charity for less than market value. The tax exemption granted by Proposition 1 was designed to be equal to the percentage that the veteran is partially disabled. Proposition 1 did not itself provide a tax exemption, but authorized the legislature to create one. In May 2017, the legislature passed House Bill 150 (HB 150) to authorize a tax exemption set to take effect upon voter approval of Proposition 1 on November 7, 2017. HB 150 was designed to allow partially-disabled veterans to claim a property tax exemption if they paid 50 percent or less of the market value for the house donated to them. The measure also kept the existing tax exemption for partially-disabled veterans who received their homes from charity at no cost.

Creating tax exemptions on houses in Texas

Section 1 of Article 8 of the Texas Constitution requires that houses be taxed in proportion to their values unless the constitution exempts this requirement for specific types of properties or persons. Proposition 1 allowed the legislature to create an exception from this requirement that houses be taxed in proportion to their value. Proposition 1 made a modification to Proposition 4 passed in 2013. Proposition 4 allowed the legislature to provide property tax exemptions to partially-disabled veterans if the homesteads were donated to the veteran by a charity at no cost to the veteran.

Text of measure

Ballot title

The ballot title was as follows:

“

The constitutional amendment authorizing the legislature to provide for an exemption from ad valorem taxation of part of the market value of the residence homestead of a partially disabled veteran or the surviving spouse of a partially disabled veteran if the residence homestead was donated to the disabled veteran by a charitable organization for less than the market value of the residence homestead and harmonizing certain related provisions of the Texas Constitution.

”

Constitutional changes

See also: Article 8, Texas Constitution

The measure amended both subsections labeled (l) and subsection (m) of Section 1-b of Article 8 of the Texas Constitution. The following underlined text was added, and struck-through text was deleted: Note: Hover over the text and scroll to see the full text.

(l) The legislature by general law may provide that a partially disabled veteran is entitled to an exemption from ad valorem taxation of a percentage of the market value of the disabled veteran's residence homestead that is equal to the percentage of disability of the disabled veteran if the residence homestead was donated to the disabled veteran by a charitable organization for less than the market value of the residence homestead, including at no cost to the disabled veteran. The legislature by general law may provide additional eligibility requirements for the exemption. For purposes of this subsection, "partially disabled veteran" means a disabled veteran as described by Section 2(b) of this article who is certified as having a disability rating of less than 100 percent. A limitation or restriction on a disabled veteran's entitlement to an exemption under Section 2(b) of this article, or on the amount of an exemption under Section 2(b), does not apply to an exemption under this subsection.

(l) (m) The legislature by general law may provide that the surviving spouse of a member of the armed services of the United States who is killed in action is entitled to an exemption from ad valorem taxation of all or part of the market value of the surviving spouse's residence homestead if the surviving spouse has not remarried since the death of the member of the armed services.

(m) (n) The legislature by general law may provide that a surviving spouse who qualifies for and receives an exemption in accordance with Subsection (l) (m) of this section and who subsequently qualifies a different property as the surviving spouse's residence homestead is entitled to an exemption from ad valorem taxation of the subsequently qualified homestead in an amount equal to the dollar amount of the exemption from ad valorem taxation of the first homestead for which the exemption was received in accordance with Subsection (l) (m) of this section in the last year in which the surviving spouse received the exemption in accordance with that subsection for that homestead if the surviving spouse has not remarried since the death of the member of the armed services.

Readability score

See also: Ballot measure readability scores, 2017

Using the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level (FKGL and Flesch Reading Ease (FRE) formulas, Ballotpedia scored the readability of the ballot title and summary for this measure. Readability scores are designed to indicate the reading difficulty of text. The Flesch-Kincaid formulas account for the number of words, syllables, and sentences in a text; they do not account for the difficulty of the ideas in the text. The Texas State Legislature wrote the ballot language for this measure. The FKGL for the ballot title is grade level 36, and the FRE is -38. The word count for the ballot title is 72, and the estimated reading time is 19 seconds.

House Bill 150

Bill

The enabling legislation for Proposition 1 was House Bill 150 (HB 150). An implementing bill, such as HB 150, provides the details of how a constitutional amendment will operate. HB 150 went into effect upon voter approval of Proposition 1. If voters had rejected this amendment, HB 150 would not have gone into effect.

HB 150 was designed to allow partially-disabled veterans to claim a property tax exemption if they paid 50 percent or less of the market value for the house donated to them by a charity.

The bill was also designed to lower the annual interest rate for a homestead tax deferral or abatement for which people who are 65 years of age or older or disabled are eligible. The interest rate was decreased from 8 percent to 5 percent.

Legislature

Rep. Cecil Bell, Jr. (R-3) introduced HB 150 into the Texas State Legislature. On May 8, 2017, the Texas House of Representatives approved the bill 141 to 4 with five members not voting. The Texas Senate voted to pass an amended version of the bill on May 23, 2017. The vote was 31 to 0. On May 25, the House refused to concur with the upper chamber's amendments. The House requested a conference committee, which the Senate approved on May 26.

On May 28, 2017, both chambers of the legislature adopted the conference committee's version of the bill. The Senate voted 29 to 1 with one member excused. The House voted 147 to 0 with three members not voting. Gov. Greg Abbott (R) signed the bill on June 15, 2017.

Support

Supporters

• Rep. Cecil Bell, Jr. (R-3)
• Rep. Bobby Guerra (D-41)

Arguments

The Texas House Research Organization (HRO) provided arguments supporting and arguments opposing the amendment. The following was the HRO's supporting arguments:

“

HJR 21 [Proposition 1] would allow the Legislature to fix an anomaly in current law that can increase the financial burden on a partially disabled veteran who paid some amount of the cost of a donated home. Unlike a partially disabled veteran whose home is donated in full, a veteran who paid part of the cost of a donated home receives no property tax exemption on its taxable value. This can lead to a sizable property tax bill that the recipient may not have anticipated and an ongoing cost that the veteran may not have the income to offset. Veterans in this situation are at risk of losing a donated home to unpaid property taxes, even if that home was built or renovated specifically for the individual's disabilities, with features such as wheelchair-accessibility. Veterans have sacrificed much for the state, and the Legislature should afford them certain benefits and attempt to address injustices when it finds them. In this spirit, HJR 21 [Proposition 1] would confer the same well-earned property tax exemption to a partially disabled veteran who paid something toward the value of a donated home that is currently received by disabled veterans whose homes were donated in full. No disabled veteran should be at risk of losing a home that is specifically donated to accommodate their needs due to an ongoing, unaffordable property tax burden.

”

Opposition

Arguments

The Texas House Research Organization (HRO) provided arguments supporting and arguments opposing the amendment. The following was the HRO's opposing arguments:

“

HJR 21 [Proposition 1] would continue a pattern of giving carve-outs and exemptions to specific groups of people, when instead the Legislature should focus its efforts on reducing the tax burden on everyone.

”

Campaign finance

See also: Campaign finance requirements for Texas ballot measures

Total campaign contributions:
Support:	$0.00
Opposition:	$0.00

No ballot measure committees registered to support or oppose the constitutional amendment.

Media editorials

See also: 2017 ballot measure media endorsements

Support

• The Dallas Morning News said: "These men and women have already sacrificed so much for this country; it's wrong to place a tax burden on handicap-accessible homes that have been mostly donated — especially if the veterans are already shouldering some of the cost. No disabled veteran, or their surviving spouse, should be at risk of losing proper housing because of a big tax bill."

• The Houston Chronicle said: "But these Texans sacrificed their bodies for our national defense, and they and their spouses deserve to live without worry of losing their homes to tax bills that bear little relation to what folks can actually afford."

• The Austin Chronicle said: "While support for disabled veterans is understandable, It’s also arguable that such tax carve-outs only shift the tax burden and make the state property tax system even more unfair."

• San Antonio Express-News said: "Texas voters approved an amendment in 2013 for disabled veterans whose homes had been donated in full. This amendment simply fixes things for veterans who put money toward the cost of their homes. Vote yes on Proposition 1."

Opposition

Ballotpedia has not found any media editorial boards opposing the measure. If you are aware of an editorial board's stance that is not listed above, please email it to editor@ballotpedia.org.

Background

Veterans and property taxes in Texas

As of 2017, the Texas Constitution permitted the legislature to provide certain property tax exemptions for disabled veterans, including:

• Provide an exemption from property taxation of all or part of the market value of the residence of a 100-percent or totally-disabled veteran
• Extend the exemption permitted for the residence of a 100-percent or totally-disabled veteran to the residence of the surviving spouse of the veteran under certain circumstances.
• Provide an exemption from property taxation for partially-disabled veterans, in proportion to the percent they are disabled, who received their houses from a charity at no cost.

Referred amendments on the ballot

From 1995 through 2015, the state legislature referred 152 constitutional amendments to the ballot. Voters approved 138 and rejected 14 of the referred amendments. Most of the amendments (136 of 152) were referred to the ballot for elections during odd-numbered election years. The average number of amendments appearing on an odd-year ballot was between 13 and 14. The approval rate at the ballot box was 90.8 percent during the 20-year period from 1995 through 2015. The rejection rate was 9.2 percent. In 2015, there were seven referred amendments on the ballot, the lowest number for an odd-year ballot between 1995 and 2015.

Legislatively-referred constitutional amendments, 1995-2015
Total number	Approved	Percent approved	Defeated	Percent defeated	Odd-year average	Odd-year median	Odd-year minimum	Odd-year maximum
152	138	90.79%	14	9.21%	13.6	14.0	7	22

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.

Rep. Cecil Bell, Jr. (R-3) filed the amendment in the state legislature as House Joint Resolution 21 on November 14, 2016. The Texas House of Representatives approved the amendment 143 to 0 with seven members not voting on May 8, 2017. The Texas Senate approved the amendment 31 to 0 on May 23, 2017.

Vote in the Texas Senate May 23, 2017
Requirement: Two-thirds (66.67 percent) vote of all members in each chamber
Number of yes votes required: 21  a
	Yes	No	Not voting
Total	31	0	0
Total percent	100.00%	0.00%	0.00%
Democrat	11	0	0
Republican	20	0	0

Vote in the Texas House of Representatives May 8, 2017
Requirement: Two-thirds (66.67 percent) vote of all members in each chamber
Number of yes votes required: 100  a
	Yes	No	Not voting
Total	143	0	7
Total percent	95.33%	0.00%	4.67%
Democrat	52	0	3
Republican	91	0	4

State profile

Demographic data for Texas
	Texas	U.S.
Total population:	27,429,639	316,515,021
Land area (sq mi):	261,232	3,531,905
Race and ethnicity**
White:	74.9%	73.6%
Black/African American:	11.9%	12.6%
Asian:	4.2%	5.1%
Native American:	0.5%	0.8%
Pacific Islander:	0.1%	0.2%
Two or more:	2.5%	3%
Hispanic/Latino:	38.4%	17.1%
Education
High school graduation rate:	81.9%	86.7%
College graduation rate:	27.6%	29.8%
Income
Median household income:	$53,207	$53,889
Persons below poverty level:	19.9%	11.3%
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, "American Community Survey" (5-year estimates 2010-2015) Click here for more information on the 2020 census and here for more on its impact on the redistricting process in Texas. **Note: Percentages for race and ethnicity may add up to more than 100 percent because respondents may report more than one race and the Hispanic/Latino ethnicity may be selected in conjunction with any race. Read more about race and ethnicity in the census here.

Presidential voting pattern

See also: Presidential voting trends in Texas

Texas voted Republican in all seven presidential elections between 2000 and 2024.

Pivot Counties (2016)

Ballotpedia identified 206 counties that voted for Donald Trump (R) in 2016 after voting for Barack Obama (D) in 2008 and 2012. Collectively, Trump won these Pivot Counties by more than 580,000 votes. Of these 206 counties, one is located in Texas, accounting for 0.5 percent of the total pivot counties.

Pivot Counties (2020)

In 2020, Ballotpedia re-examined the 206 Pivot Counties to view their voting patterns following that year's presidential election. Ballotpedia defined those won by Trump won as Retained Pivot Counties and those won by Joe Biden (D) as Boomerang Pivot Counties. Nationwide, there were 181 Retained Pivot Counties and 25 Boomerang Pivot Counties. Texas had one Retained Pivot County, 0.55 percent of all Retained Pivot Counties.

More Texas coverage on Ballotpedia

• Elections in Texas
• United States congressional delegations from Texas
• Public policy in Texas
• Endorsers in Texas
• Texas fact checks
• More...

Related measures

See also: Taxes on the ballot

Taxes measures on the ballot in 2017
State	Measures
Pennsylvania	Pennsylvania Allow Local Taxing Authorities to Exempt Full Value of Homestead Amendment a
Washington	Washington Advisory Vote 18: State Property Tax for Schools Bill d
Texas	Texas Proposition 6: Property Tax Exemption for Surviving Spouses of First Responders Killed in Line of Duty Amendment a
Louisiana	Louisiana Amendment 1: No Property Tax on Properties Under Construction Measure a
Washington	Washington Advisory Vote 17: Sales and Use Tax and Business and Occupation Tax Bill d
Louisiana	Louisiana Amendment 2: Property Tax Exemption for Surviving Spouses of Emergency Responders Killed Performing Duties Measure a
Washington	Washington Advisory Vote 16: Commercial Fishing Licenses, Fees, and Taxes Bill d

See also

Suggest a link

• Texas 2017 ballot measures
• 2017 ballot measures
• Texas Legislature
• Taxes on the ballot

External links

• House Joint Resolution 21 (Engrossed in House)

Recent news

The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the terms Texas Property Tax Exemption Disabled Veteran Donated House Amendment. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.

Texas Proposition 1, Property Tax Exemption for Partially Disabled Veteran with Donated House Amendment (2017) - Google News