House Democrats Delay Constitutional Amendment After Voucher Vote

After House Republicans last week passed a statewide private school voucher program, Democrats in the lower chamber this week held up passage of a bipartisan constitutional amendment, forcing its author to postpone it, according to the Quorum Report.

House Joint Resolution 72 would amend the Texas constitution to allow for a homestead property tax exemption for adults with intellectual or developmental disabilities.

Texas already allows homeowners to claim a tax break on their primary residence that’s known as the homestead exemption. With it, property owners can deduct up to $100,000 from the assessed value of the home before calculating local school district property taxes.

But for adults with intellection and developmental disabilities, homeownership can affect the federal benefits they receive, including supplemental security income and Medicaid, according to an analysis by the bill’s primary author, Rep. Candy Noble, R-Lucas.

That means that “under current state law, some adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities cannot receive the general residence homestead exemption because having the home in their own name could cause them to lose some of their benefits,” according to Noble’s analysis, which was informed by reporting from The Arc, a national disability rights organization.

Some of those disabled adults live in homes that siblings or relatives bought in their own name to preserve the federal benefits. But the homestead exemption can be claimed only on the property owner’s primary residence.

Noble’s resolution would change the state constitution to allow adults with those disabilities to claim the homestead exemption on their home if it’s owned by a family member.

As with all constitutional amendments, the resolution will require support from two-thirds of both chambers in order to pass, and support from a majority of voters in the November general election to become law. (It would be enabled by House Bill 972.)

HJR 72 has broad bipartisan support, counting Democratic Reps. Diego Bernal of San Antonio and Christian Manuel of Port Arthur as coauthors.

But its trajectory through the Legislature’s lower chamber this week was interrupted by what the Quorum Report called “Operation White Light,” retaliation for Republicans snubbing all 43 Democratic floor amendments to the voucher bill last week.

During the second floor reading of the resolution on Wednesday, 50 House Democrats were present but did not vote, enough to pass it into a third and final reading but shy of the 100-vote supermajority it will need to be transmitted to the Senate. The actual vote was 90-2, with Reps. Joe Moody, D-El Paso, Oscar Longoria, D-Mission and Richard Peña Raymond, D-Laredo, breaking from the pack to vote in favor. Fifty-one representatives, including House Speaker Dustin Burrows, were present but did not vote.

That bloc held on Thursday, leading Noble to postpone a third reading of the bill to Monday, according to the Quorum Report.

The House is scheduled to convene at 10 a.m. on Monday.