If you’re voting in the Republican primary, you’ll find propositions at the end of the ballot covering four policy issues. Since they are not binding, it’s easy to skip past them and hurry on with the day. But let me encourage you to give them your support.
The party’s ballot propositions, better than any “scientific poll” or “public survey,” give policymakers a clear indication of what voters – real voters, actual voters – want done.
Here they are:
- Proposition 1: Texas should replace the property tax system with an alternative other than an income tax and require voter approval to increase the overall tax burden.
- Proposition 2: Texas cities and counties should be required to comply with federal immigration laws or be penalized by loss of state funds.
- Proposition 3: Texas should prohibit governmental entities from collecting dues for labor unions through deductions from the public employee paychecks.
- Proposition 4: Texas and its citizens should strongly assert 10th Amendment Rights guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution which states “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”
I voted for all four propositions. They represent the simple, practical application of long-standing conservative principles to real-world problems.
Prop. 1 goes to the frustration Texans have with our out-of-control, highly burdensome property tax system that is in desperate need of reform. Likewise, Prop. 2 recognizes that Texas’ “sanctuary cities” are magnets for illegal aliens and worse; voting for it urges lawmakers to adopt policies cutting off state funds to those cities.
Texas is a right-to-work state, and taxpayers shouldn’t be forced to subsidize labor unions’ collection system. Prop. 3 recognizes that payment of union dues should be between the employee and the union.
Lastly, it’s remarkable that we even need Prop. 4, asking state officials to assert their obligation to uphold the Constitution, but such is the world in which we live.
It’s a simple truth: we still end up with the government we ignore.
As citizens, we must take every opportunity to make our views known to our public servants – in letters and phone calls, in person and on the ballot.
