Seventeen proposed amendments are on the ballot for the November 2025 election. The Dublin Citizen has presented the propositions. Atthe Texas League of Women Voters website lwvtexas. org, find non-partisan pros and cons for each proposition (follow Voter Info links). I urge you to read through their work. It’s not long. Here, I discuss just two themes. It is in your best interest to vote on all the numbers.
A few of the propositions appear to be token gifts to the donor class, and potentially harmful otherwise. Proposition 2, a prohibition on Capital Gains tax; Proposition 6, a ban on taxing stock trades; and Proposition 8, a ban on Estate and gift taxes, are short-sighted. For the most part, these amendments are not needed—Texas already outlaws taxes on income. That’s why I call them “token” gifts. But the real problem is that these propositions place road blocks in the path toward tapping sources of state income that are more fair to working folks. They just cement Texas’ reliance on sales taxes and property taxes.
Speaking of property taxes, the Texas state administration has stated a goal of reducing our property taxes. But they have a problem. The reason we still see laws and amendments that just chip away at property taxation, such as proposition numbers 5, 7, 9, 11, and 13, is that the Texas legislators have not put real alternatives in place. Texas government still relies heavily on taxes that hit hard on lower income people: sales tax and property tax. The property tax related propositions here give limited relief.
Two propositions have potentially big impacts on the ability to fund local governments and schools: the lessening of tax on business property, and the increased homestead exemption. For the homestead exemption, the enabling legislation, SB4, states that the loss of funds to local schools will be offset (at least in part) by state general revenue. No budget allotment is made, the promise is there, but general revenue has had it’s ups and downs. In the case of Prop. 9, the exemption of some business property from taxation, however, the enabling legislation, HB9, allows local government to compensate for the loss of funding by raising their overall rate of taxation past the set cap. So, win/ lose.
David Brock, Dublin resident