The 2015 legislative session placed seven constitutional amendments on this year’s uniform election ballot. Uniform elections occur in odd-numbered years and usually involve constitutional amendments passed by the Texas Legislature during its recent completed session.
This year’s amendments involve increasing homestead exemptions from property taxes, providing property tax exemptions for surviving spouses of disabled veterans and discontinuing a requirement that state-wide elected officials live in Austin.
Perhaps the most interesting to residents in the Coastal Band is Proposition 6, guaranteeing the right to hunt and fish.
“I think the spirit behind this is looking into the future,” said David Yeates, chief executive officer of the Texas Wildlife Association, which supports passage of Prop. 6. The Texas Wildlife Association is a nonprofit membership organization that works to protect Texas wildlife and its habitat while also protecting property rights, hunting heritage and conservations efforts.
At an executive meeting in October, attending TWA members were urged to help increase voter turnout to support the measure. The importance of the proposition involves the state’s economy and environment, Yeates said.
“The most intrinsic value of hunting and fishing is that the practice provides several billion dollars a year of industry,” he told Corpus Christi Business News. “Hunting particularly provides an economic value to the game animals of Texas and provides an economic incentive for landowners to provide habitat to game species.”
The need to enshrine the right to hunt and fish comes from the continued urbanization of the state, coupled with population growth, he continued. Land preserved by private landowners for hunters also provides habitat for non-game species.
“Landowners that cater to hunters leave their land in a more natural state, supporting improved aquifer recharge,” Yeates said. “That land is like an open-air filter and water filters for urban Texas. That’s the real underlying importance of enshrining this in the constitution.”
In Texas, 95 percent of the land is privately owned. The population has been growing by 1,500 residents a day, more than 80 percent of them settling in urban areas. Hunters and anglers represent only about 15 percent of the overall population.
“So, looking down the road, could Texas become less tolerant of the outdoor lifestyle?” Years asked. “Perhaps. This is an opportunity when we still have a population accepting and supporting of hunters and anglers to go ahead and put this in the constitution.”
Fees paid by outdoorsmen and women to hunt and fish help fund conservation efforts, but perhaps most important, Yeates said, is the human connection to nature it provides.
“For me, personally, hunting and fishing is about being in nature, having that connectivity to nature,” he said. “It’s spiritual. I don’t know how you quantify that. Everybody should have the opportunity to commune with nature. That’s an enormous part of who I am.”
To be part of making hunting and fishing a right in the state of Texas, be sure to vote Nov. 3.
PROPOSITIONS AS THEY APPEAR ON THE BALLOT
Prop. 1
The constitutional amendment increasing the amount of the residence homestead exemption from ad valorem taxation for public school purposes from $15,000 to $25,000, providing for a reduction of the limitation on the total amount of ad valorem taxes that may be imposed for those purposes on the homestead of an elderly or disabled person to reflect the increased exemption amount, authorizing the legislature to prohibit a political subdivision that has adopted an optional residence homestead exemption from ad valorem taxation from reducing the amount of or repealing the exemption, and prohibiting the enactment of a law that imposes a transfer tax on a transaction that conveys fee simple title to real property.
Prop. 2
The constitutional amendment authorizing the legislature to provide for an exemption from ad valorem taxation of all or part of the market value of the residence homestead of the surviving spouse of a 100 percent or totally disabled veteran who died before the law authorizing a residence homestead exemption for such a veteran took effect.
Prop. 3
The constitutional amendment repealing the requirement that state officers elected by voters statewide reside in the state capital.
Prop. 4
The constitutional amendment authorizing the legislature to permit professional sports team charitable foundations to conduct charitable raffles.
Prop. 5
The constitutional amendment to authorize counties with a population of 7,500 or less to perform private road construction and maintenance.
Prop. 6
The constitutional amendment recognizing the right of the people to hunt, fish, and harvest wildlife subject to laws that promote wildlife conservation
Prop. 7
The constitutional amendment dedicating certain sales and use tax revenue and motor vehicle sales, use, and rental tax revenue to the state highway fund to provide funding for nontolled roads and the reduction of certain transportation-related debt.
For information on where to vote, contact the Nueces County Clerk at co.nueces.tx.us/countyclerk/elections or call (361) 888-0611.