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livingdebIt looks like both parties have deliberately designed propositions to piss off the other party.
I was able to find much more information on the Republican propositions than the Democrat ones.
Republican Propositions
[Summary: We should be allowed to cloak our corruption and racism in the language of fairness and safety.]
#1. Texas should replace the property tax system with an appropriate consumption tax equivalent. - "we believe this proposition from the Texas Republican Party contemplates funding Texas public schools with higher sales taxes or some other form of more variable consumption tax in lieu of property taxes. ... the state sales tax would have to be raised from 6.25 to 23 percent, using the current tax base, to make up for revenue lost from eliminating the property tax." (TV1) It means "Fully remove the property tax." (TGOP1)
#2. No governmental entity should ever construct or fund construction of toll roads without voter approval. - "A declaration by Governor Greg Abbott and Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick to the state highway commission to stop all planning for toll roads has brought highway construction in Texas to a halt. ... This is political pandering to a small group of anti-toll-road activists, and it could strangle the state’s infrastructure growth." (TM)
#3. Republicans in the Texas House should select their Speaker nominee by secret ballot in a binding caucus without Democrat influence. "As long as there is a Republican majority in the Texas House, this would ensure that Republicans, not Democrats, determine the Speaker of the Texas House." (TGOP1) "Straus himself was initially elected in 2009 after a coalition of most of the Democrats and about a dozen-and-a-half Republicans publicly backed him, forcing Tom Craddick of Midland to end his bid for another term at the job." (TT)
#4. Texas should require employers to screen new hires through the free E-Verify system to protect jobs for legal workers. - "E-Verify is an online system that employers can use to confirm the legal status of new hires. It compares information from an employee’s Form I-9 (Employment Eligibility Verification) to data from Homeland Security and Social Security Administration. This could be an added regulatory burden but would also ensure that employers do not accidentally hire illegal aliens." (TGOP1) "Making it mandatory is part of the federal immigration debate. Essentially, it turns businesses into an enforcer of federal immigration law. In the states that have mandated its use, employers have gotten around the requirement by hiring contractors instead of employees." (TM)
#5. Texas families should be empowered to choose from public, private, charter, or homeschool options for their children’s education, using tax credits or exemptions without government constraints or intrusion. - "Under current law, Texas families can already “choose from public, private, charter, or homeschool options for their children’s education.” Current laws at the state and federal level also enforce very little regulation on private schools, while homeschools exist with almost no government regulation. On the other hand, traditional public schools and public charter schools are considerably more regulated and are both subject to the state accountability system while being made available to students at no direct cost to their parents. Since Texas families already have school choice under the law, this ballot proposition seemingly seeks input on whether or not the state should create some new form of voucher system that would fund private and or homeschool settings without attaching any accountability (“government constraints or intrusion”) to those public funds." (TV1) "Instead of the parents’ tax dollars going directly to public schools, parents would be allowed to take their own tax money and use it for their children’s education in whatever setting they choose. It would not allow parents to use other people’s tax money for their own children." (TGOP1) "This is the private school voucher question. Religious conservatives tend to favor it, while educators and rural voters usually oppose private school vouchers." (TM)
#6. Texas should protect the privacy and safety of women and children in spaces such as bathrooms, locker rooms, and showers in all Texas schools and government buildings. - "Texas already has multiple laws that protect women and children (and men for that matter) from harassment, assault, rape, murder, child abuse, and other specific crimes, whether those crimes occur in a bathroom, locker room, shower, or anywhere else. According to the Texas Republican Party’s voter guide explaining its 2018 ballot, this particular proposition is aimed at protecting against “some schools” that the party’s leaders say have “tried to allow boys to have access to girls’ private areas, including school showers and restrooms.” This proposition revisits the subject matter of some controversial bills that were filed during the 2017 legislative sessions but did not pass regarding school district policies on bathroom usage by transgender children. Texas does not have a state law prohibiting transgender children from entering a restroom matching the gender with which they identify. Currently, school districts or individual campuses set policies locally to determine how to address individual student situations and requests from families. This ballot proposition appears to contemplate whether or not there should be a single state law that supersedes any local policies." (TV1) "Texas businesses and Chambers of Commerce widely opposed the legislation to limit bathroom access to the gender on a person’s birth certificate, believing it would make it difficult to convince corporations to relocate to Texas because of the inability to recruit and retain progressive employees." (TM)
#7. I believe abortion should be abolished in Texas. "This proposition makes no specific recommendations. But if it receives strong support, it might signal conservative lawmakers that their voters will support an anything-goes philosophy on new abortion restrictions." (TM)
#8. Vote fraud should be a felony in Texas to help ensure fair elections. - "In 2017, the Texas Legislature passed laws criminalizing election fraud as a Class A misdemeanor but increasing it to a felony for specific cases (for example, repeat offenders). This would make vote fraud an automatic felony offense." (GOP1) 'Casting an illegal ballot—either by pretending to be someone else or false registration—already is a felony in Texas. Improperly assisting someone else to cast a ballot is a Class A misdemeanor, punishable by a year in jail and a fine of up to $4,000. A Houston public media study published in October 2016 found the state attorney general’s office had “prosecuted fewer than 90 cases of voter fraud since 2002, compared to 64 million votes cast over the same period.”' (TM)
#9. Texas demands that Congress completely repeal Obamacare. - "Congress repealed the individual mandate for Obamacare in the tax reform bill; however, Obamacare as a system of socialized medicine still exists. This would remove it and return healthcare to the free market." (GOP1) [It's not quite a free market with employers and insurance companies as middlemen; government as middlemen doesn't seem much different.] "Texas never expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, and the recently passed federal tax bill does away with the individual mandate next year. Not much of Obamacare remains in Texas." (TM)
#10. To slow the growth of property taxes, yearly revenue increases should be capped at 4%, with increases in excess of 4% requiring voter approval. - "the vast majority of schools are already subject to rollback elections if school district trustees choose to raise their local tax rate above current levels. ... Currently, if a school district’s revenue increases due to a rise in property values, and not because of an increase in the property tax rate, the district does not have to conduct a rollback election. Under a four percent revenue cap that is being proposed by the Texas Republican Party leadership, school districts would have to conduct a rollback election every time their revenue from increased property values exceeds four percent. It’s worth noting that rollback elections are themselves expensive to conduct and are funded out of money that would otherwise be spent by the school district educating students. This proposition contemplates that if voters do not approve of the increase in revenue, the district would likely have to decrease its property tax rate in order to bring down its total revenue increase to four percent or less. As a side note, the Texas legislature has used increases in local property values to offset its own decreases in per-pupil state funding for more than a decade. This is why the ratio of state to local public education spending has gone from roughly 50/50 about ten years ago to 38/62 (or less) by 2019." (TV1) "Such a proposal would strangle government services in fast-growth cities and counties, especially if much of the revenue growth comes from new construction, not just property appraisal increases." (TM)
#11. Tax dollars should not be used to fund the building of stadiums for professional or semi-professional sports teams. - [There is a tax story I greatly admire in Oklahoma City--they proposed raising the sales tax by 2% for 6 years in order to finance 6 projects. Those projects were all completed (2 even won awards), and then the tax rate actually was dropped. One of those projects was a stadium. Cities should be able to do what they want.] "This does not address school stadiums. Do local communities benefit from the financial impact of investing in a stadium for a privately owned sports franchise? This debate goes on nationally. What you can say for certain is that if the state forbids the practice, it will be like unilateral disarmament. Sports teams that want a new stadium, will simply try to relocate to a city or county that will build them a stadium." (TM)
Democrat
[Summary: Everyone should be allowed to have useful and important stuff for free; don't worry your pretty little head about where the money will come from.]
#1. Should everyone in Texas have the right to quality public education from pre-k to 12th grade, and affordable college and career training without the burden of crushing student loan debt? - "here are dozens, if not hundreds, of potential initiatives that could fall under ensuring a quality education for every Texan. However, a closer look at the party’s 2016 state platform reveals that the party believes, “Every child should have access to an educational program that values highly skilled teachers and encourages critical thinking and creativity, without the harmful impact of high stakes standardized testing.” The party’s 2016 platform also contains several specific recommendations for funding Texas public schools, reducing recapture, ensuring that all mandates are funded, opposing using public tax dollars for private schools, prioritizing resources for pre-Kindergarten, addressing teacher quality through higher pay and teacher certification standards, reducing high-stakes testing, and other initiatives." (TV1)
#2. Should everyone in Texas have the right to refinance student loan debt with the Federal Reserve at a 0% interest rate, as relief for the crushing burden of debt and an investment in the next generation of Americans?
#3. Should everyone in Texas have a right to healthcare, guaranteed by a universal, quality Medicare-for-all system?
#4. Should everyone in Texas have the right to economic security, where all workers have earned paid family and sick leave and a living wage that respects their hard work?
#5. Should the Democratic Party promote a national jobs program, with high wage and labor standards, to replace crumbling infrastructure and rebuild hurricane damaged areas, paid for with local, state, and federal bonds financed through the Federal Reserve at low interest with long term maturities?
#6. Should everyone in Texas have the right to clean air, safe water, and a healthy environment?
#7. Should everyone in Texas have the right to a life of dignity and respect, free from discrimination and harassment anywhere, including businesses and public facilities, no matter how they identify, the color of their skin, who they love, socioeconomic status, or from where they come?
#8. Should everyone in Texas have the right to affordable and accessible housing and modern utilities including high speed internet, free from any form of discrimination?
#9. Should every eligible Texan have the right to vote, made easier by automatic voter registration, the option to vote by mail, a state election holiday, and no corporate campaign influence, foreign interference, or illegal gerrymandering?
#10. Should everyone in Texas have the right to a fair criminal justice system that treats people equally and puts an end to the mass incarceration of young people of color for minor offenses?
#11. Should there be a just and fair comprehensive immigration reform solution that includes an earned path to citizenship for law-abiding immigrants and their children, keeps families together, protects DREAMers, and provides workforce solutions for businesses?
#12. Should everyone in Texas have the right to a fair tax system, where all interests (business, corporations, and individuals) pay their share, so that state government meets its obligations?
TGOP1 - Republican Party of Texas staff. Republican Primary Voter Guide, 2/9/18
TM - Ratcliffe, R.G. Legislative Agenda Is On the Republican Primary Ballot. Texas Monthly. 2/15/18.
TT - Ramsey, Ross. Analysis: Texans won’t have to wait for November to know who’s winning. Texas Tribune ( ("Nonpartisan. Nonprofit."). 2/16/18.
TV1 - Answering your questions on 2018 Texas primary ballot propositions. Teach the Vote (pro-teacher). Read 2/22/18.
I was able to find much more information on the Republican propositions than the Democrat ones.
Republican Propositions
[Summary: We should be allowed to cloak our corruption and racism in the language of fairness and safety.]
#1. Texas should replace the property tax system with an appropriate consumption tax equivalent. - "we believe this proposition from the Texas Republican Party contemplates funding Texas public schools with higher sales taxes or some other form of more variable consumption tax in lieu of property taxes. ... the state sales tax would have to be raised from 6.25 to 23 percent, using the current tax base, to make up for revenue lost from eliminating the property tax." (TV1) It means "Fully remove the property tax." (TGOP1)
#2. No governmental entity should ever construct or fund construction of toll roads without voter approval. - "A declaration by Governor Greg Abbott and Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick to the state highway commission to stop all planning for toll roads has brought highway construction in Texas to a halt. ... This is political pandering to a small group of anti-toll-road activists, and it could strangle the state’s infrastructure growth." (TM)
#3. Republicans in the Texas House should select their Speaker nominee by secret ballot in a binding caucus without Democrat influence. "As long as there is a Republican majority in the Texas House, this would ensure that Republicans, not Democrats, determine the Speaker of the Texas House." (TGOP1) "Straus himself was initially elected in 2009 after a coalition of most of the Democrats and about a dozen-and-a-half Republicans publicly backed him, forcing Tom Craddick of Midland to end his bid for another term at the job." (TT)
#4. Texas should require employers to screen new hires through the free E-Verify system to protect jobs for legal workers. - "E-Verify is an online system that employers can use to confirm the legal status of new hires. It compares information from an employee’s Form I-9 (Employment Eligibility Verification) to data from Homeland Security and Social Security Administration. This could be an added regulatory burden but would also ensure that employers do not accidentally hire illegal aliens." (TGOP1) "Making it mandatory is part of the federal immigration debate. Essentially, it turns businesses into an enforcer of federal immigration law. In the states that have mandated its use, employers have gotten around the requirement by hiring contractors instead of employees." (TM)
#5. Texas families should be empowered to choose from public, private, charter, or homeschool options for their children’s education, using tax credits or exemptions without government constraints or intrusion. - "Under current law, Texas families can already “choose from public, private, charter, or homeschool options for their children’s education.” Current laws at the state and federal level also enforce very little regulation on private schools, while homeschools exist with almost no government regulation. On the other hand, traditional public schools and public charter schools are considerably more regulated and are both subject to the state accountability system while being made available to students at no direct cost to their parents. Since Texas families already have school choice under the law, this ballot proposition seemingly seeks input on whether or not the state should create some new form of voucher system that would fund private and or homeschool settings without attaching any accountability (“government constraints or intrusion”) to those public funds." (TV1) "Instead of the parents’ tax dollars going directly to public schools, parents would be allowed to take their own tax money and use it for their children’s education in whatever setting they choose. It would not allow parents to use other people’s tax money for their own children." (TGOP1) "This is the private school voucher question. Religious conservatives tend to favor it, while educators and rural voters usually oppose private school vouchers." (TM)
#6. Texas should protect the privacy and safety of women and children in spaces such as bathrooms, locker rooms, and showers in all Texas schools and government buildings. - "Texas already has multiple laws that protect women and children (and men for that matter) from harassment, assault, rape, murder, child abuse, and other specific crimes, whether those crimes occur in a bathroom, locker room, shower, or anywhere else. According to the Texas Republican Party’s voter guide explaining its 2018 ballot, this particular proposition is aimed at protecting against “some schools” that the party’s leaders say have “tried to allow boys to have access to girls’ private areas, including school showers and restrooms.” This proposition revisits the subject matter of some controversial bills that were filed during the 2017 legislative sessions but did not pass regarding school district policies on bathroom usage by transgender children. Texas does not have a state law prohibiting transgender children from entering a restroom matching the gender with which they identify. Currently, school districts or individual campuses set policies locally to determine how to address individual student situations and requests from families. This ballot proposition appears to contemplate whether or not there should be a single state law that supersedes any local policies." (TV1) "Texas businesses and Chambers of Commerce widely opposed the legislation to limit bathroom access to the gender on a person’s birth certificate, believing it would make it difficult to convince corporations to relocate to Texas because of the inability to recruit and retain progressive employees." (TM)
#7. I believe abortion should be abolished in Texas. "This proposition makes no specific recommendations. But if it receives strong support, it might signal conservative lawmakers that their voters will support an anything-goes philosophy on new abortion restrictions." (TM)
#8. Vote fraud should be a felony in Texas to help ensure fair elections. - "In 2017, the Texas Legislature passed laws criminalizing election fraud as a Class A misdemeanor but increasing it to a felony for specific cases (for example, repeat offenders). This would make vote fraud an automatic felony offense." (GOP1) 'Casting an illegal ballot—either by pretending to be someone else or false registration—already is a felony in Texas. Improperly assisting someone else to cast a ballot is a Class A misdemeanor, punishable by a year in jail and a fine of up to $4,000. A Houston public media study published in October 2016 found the state attorney general’s office had “prosecuted fewer than 90 cases of voter fraud since 2002, compared to 64 million votes cast over the same period.”' (TM)
#9. Texas demands that Congress completely repeal Obamacare. - "Congress repealed the individual mandate for Obamacare in the tax reform bill; however, Obamacare as a system of socialized medicine still exists. This would remove it and return healthcare to the free market." (GOP1) [It's not quite a free market with employers and insurance companies as middlemen; government as middlemen doesn't seem much different.] "Texas never expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, and the recently passed federal tax bill does away with the individual mandate next year. Not much of Obamacare remains in Texas." (TM)
#10. To slow the growth of property taxes, yearly revenue increases should be capped at 4%, with increases in excess of 4% requiring voter approval. - "the vast majority of schools are already subject to rollback elections if school district trustees choose to raise their local tax rate above current levels. ... Currently, if a school district’s revenue increases due to a rise in property values, and not because of an increase in the property tax rate, the district does not have to conduct a rollback election. Under a four percent revenue cap that is being proposed by the Texas Republican Party leadership, school districts would have to conduct a rollback election every time their revenue from increased property values exceeds four percent. It’s worth noting that rollback elections are themselves expensive to conduct and are funded out of money that would otherwise be spent by the school district educating students. This proposition contemplates that if voters do not approve of the increase in revenue, the district would likely have to decrease its property tax rate in order to bring down its total revenue increase to four percent or less. As a side note, the Texas legislature has used increases in local property values to offset its own decreases in per-pupil state funding for more than a decade. This is why the ratio of state to local public education spending has gone from roughly 50/50 about ten years ago to 38/62 (or less) by 2019." (TV1) "Such a proposal would strangle government services in fast-growth cities and counties, especially if much of the revenue growth comes from new construction, not just property appraisal increases." (TM)
#11. Tax dollars should not be used to fund the building of stadiums for professional or semi-professional sports teams. - [There is a tax story I greatly admire in Oklahoma City--they proposed raising the sales tax by 2% for 6 years in order to finance 6 projects. Those projects were all completed (2 even won awards), and then the tax rate actually was dropped. One of those projects was a stadium. Cities should be able to do what they want.] "This does not address school stadiums. Do local communities benefit from the financial impact of investing in a stadium for a privately owned sports franchise? This debate goes on nationally. What you can say for certain is that if the state forbids the practice, it will be like unilateral disarmament. Sports teams that want a new stadium, will simply try to relocate to a city or county that will build them a stadium." (TM)
Democrat
[Summary: Everyone should be allowed to have useful and important stuff for free; don't worry your pretty little head about where the money will come from.]
#1. Should everyone in Texas have the right to quality public education from pre-k to 12th grade, and affordable college and career training without the burden of crushing student loan debt? - "here are dozens, if not hundreds, of potential initiatives that could fall under ensuring a quality education for every Texan. However, a closer look at the party’s 2016 state platform reveals that the party believes, “Every child should have access to an educational program that values highly skilled teachers and encourages critical thinking and creativity, without the harmful impact of high stakes standardized testing.” The party’s 2016 platform also contains several specific recommendations for funding Texas public schools, reducing recapture, ensuring that all mandates are funded, opposing using public tax dollars for private schools, prioritizing resources for pre-Kindergarten, addressing teacher quality through higher pay and teacher certification standards, reducing high-stakes testing, and other initiatives." (TV1)
#2. Should everyone in Texas have the right to refinance student loan debt with the Federal Reserve at a 0% interest rate, as relief for the crushing burden of debt and an investment in the next generation of Americans?
#3. Should everyone in Texas have a right to healthcare, guaranteed by a universal, quality Medicare-for-all system?
#4. Should everyone in Texas have the right to economic security, where all workers have earned paid family and sick leave and a living wage that respects their hard work?
#5. Should the Democratic Party promote a national jobs program, with high wage and labor standards, to replace crumbling infrastructure and rebuild hurricane damaged areas, paid for with local, state, and federal bonds financed through the Federal Reserve at low interest with long term maturities?
#6. Should everyone in Texas have the right to clean air, safe water, and a healthy environment?
#7. Should everyone in Texas have the right to a life of dignity and respect, free from discrimination and harassment anywhere, including businesses and public facilities, no matter how they identify, the color of their skin, who they love, socioeconomic status, or from where they come?
#8. Should everyone in Texas have the right to affordable and accessible housing and modern utilities including high speed internet, free from any form of discrimination?
#9. Should every eligible Texan have the right to vote, made easier by automatic voter registration, the option to vote by mail, a state election holiday, and no corporate campaign influence, foreign interference, or illegal gerrymandering?
#10. Should everyone in Texas have the right to a fair criminal justice system that treats people equally and puts an end to the mass incarceration of young people of color for minor offenses?
#11. Should there be a just and fair comprehensive immigration reform solution that includes an earned path to citizenship for law-abiding immigrants and their children, keeps families together, protects DREAMers, and provides workforce solutions for businesses?
#12. Should everyone in Texas have the right to a fair tax system, where all interests (business, corporations, and individuals) pay their share, so that state government meets its obligations?
TGOP1 - Republican Party of Texas staff. Republican Primary Voter Guide, 2/9/18
TM - Ratcliffe, R.G. Legislative Agenda Is On the Republican Primary Ballot. Texas Monthly. 2/15/18.
TT - Ramsey, Ross. Analysis: Texans won’t have to wait for November to know who’s winning. Texas Tribune ( ("Nonpartisan. Nonprofit."). 2/16/18.
TV1 - Answering your questions on 2018 Texas primary ballot propositions. Teach the Vote (pro-teacher). Read 2/22/18.