Texas proposition advocates make final push

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Supporters of 11 propositions on the Texas ballot — including one to fund more top-tier research universities — made their final plea Monday for voter passage in what’s shaping up as a low-turnout election.

Proposition 4 would create a national research university fund out of $500 million in existing state money if Texans approve it Tuesday. The proposed constitutional amendment, plus those limiting eminent domain powers, guaranteeing public access to beaches and helping to build more veterans hospitals, are getting the most attention.

Gov. Rick Perry said there are “a number of very important constitutional amendments that are on that election tomorrow, whether it’s eminent domain, whether it’s putting Texas on track to have more Tier One (research) institutions. Those are all very important issues.”

“So I hope the citizens of Texas will take advantage of their right to vote and go vote in an affirmative way for those constitutional amendments,” Perry said Monday.

Two weeks of early voting concluded Friday. The Texas Secretary of State’s Office, in tracking voting totals for the 15 counties with the largest number of registered voters, reported the highest percentage of early voting in Harris County, where there’s a race for mayor and other municipal elections.

Overall, only about 2 percent of voters cast early ballots in the counties tracked, according to the latest figures available.

“A vote for Proposition 4 is a vote for attracting the best research minds in the world to Texas,” said Texas House Speaker Joe Straus, with other proposition supporters at the Capitol on Monday. He said the amendment also would attract the best students to Texas.

Currently, Texas has three top-level research universities: the University of Texas at Austin; Texas A&M University and Rice University. If voters approve the proposition, some $500 million from the dormant Higher Education Fund would be
transferred into a new account and eventually generate about $25 million a year to help create new research universities, supporters say. They say Texas lags behind other states like California and New York in top-tier universities.

“Proposition 4 is the biggie,” said Rep. Dan Branch, a Dallas Republican who chairs the House Higher Education Committee.

“From my biased point of view ... this is the most important issue.”

Limited opposition to the proposal has emerged, notably from the Young Conservatives of Texas, which said the proposition would expand the role of government where it isn’t needed.

Seven schools are considered eligible at this point to achieve top-tier status: Texas Tech University, the University of Houston, the University of North Texas, the University of Texas at Arlington, the University of Texas at Dallas, the University of Texas at El Paso and the University of Texas at San Antonio.

The two major Republican candidates for governor, Perry and U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, along with the Texas Farm Bureau have stumped for Prop 11, which would ban governments from taking private property and giving it to a private developer to boost the tax base.

Texans Uniting for Reform and Freedom, an anti-toll road group, opposes that proposition because it says it leaves open loopholes and doesn’t address private property issues like diminished access to land that remains after an eminent domain seizure.

All the ballot propositions had to win two-thirds passage in the Legislature to go before voters.

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