Texas Term Limits for Executive Offices Amendment (2015)
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| This measure was not put on an election ballot |
The Texas Term Limits for Executive Offices Amendment was not on the November 3, 2015, ballot in Texas as a legislatively referred constitutional amendment. The measure, upon voter approval, would have limited the number of consecutive terms certain executive officials can hold to two. The executive officials that would have been included under this measure are the governor, lieutenant governor, secretary of state, comptroller of public accounts, commissioner of general land office, attorney general, commissioner of agriculture, and members of the Texas Railroad Commission. The amendment would not have limited the number of nonconsecutive terms one could serve.[1]
The measure was introduced into the Texas Legislature by Rep. Lyle Larson (R-122) as House Joint Resolution 38.[2] A companion bill, titled Senate Joint Resolution 24, was introduced by Sen. Kevin Eltife (R-1)[3]
Text of measure
Ballot title
The proposed ballot title was:[1]
| “ | The constitutional amendment limiting to two the number of consecutive terms for which a person may be elected or appointed to hold the office of governor, lieutenant governor, secretary of state, comptroller of public accounts, commissioner of the General Land Office, attorney general, commissioner of agriculture, or railroad commissioner.[4] | ” |
Constitutional changes
- See also: Article 4, Texas Constitution
The proposed amendment would have added a Section 2a to Article 4 of the Texas Constitution. The following text would have been added by the proposed measure's approval:[1]
(a) A person who has been elected or appointed to serve two consecutive terms in an office listed in Section 1 of this article or any other statewide elective office, other than a statewide judicial office, is not eligible for election or appointment to serve a third consecutive term. This provision does not limit a person’s eligibility for election or appointment to serve nonconsecutive terms.
(b) Nothing in this section prohibits a person from continuing to serve in an office covered by this section after the end of a term as a holdover under Section 17, Article XVI, of this constitution until a successor is qualified.
(c) The term of a person appointed to serve for the remainder of a term to fill a vacancy in an office to which Subsection (a) of this section applies is not counted in determining whether the person is eligible to serve under that subsection.[4]
Path to the ballot
- See also: Amending the Texas Constitution
The proposed constitutional amendment was filed by Rep. Lyle Larson (D-122) as House Joint Resolution 38 on November 10, 2014.[2] A two-thirds vote in both chambers of the Texas State Legislature was required to refer this amendment to the ballot. Texas is one of 16 states that require a two-thirds supermajority vote in both chambers.
See also
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Texas Legislature, "HJR No. 38," accessed November 14, 2014
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Texas Legislature, "HJR No. 38 History," accessed November 14, 2014
- ↑ Texas Legislature, "SJR No. 24 History," accessed January 28, 2015
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 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
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