Article III, Section 33 of the Texas Constitution ("Origination of Revenue Bills in House of Representatives")

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As amended November 2, 1999:

All bills for raising revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives.

Editor Comments

As adopted in 1876, this section read: "All bills for raising revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives, but the Senate may amend or reject them as other bills." It has been amended once. The 1999 modification was part of a "constitutional cleanup amendment."

Attorney Steve Smith

Recent Decisions

None.

Historic Decisions

  • Smith v. Davis, 426 S.W.2d 827, 833 (Tex. 1968) ("The plaintiffs' third point is that Section 2b was a bill for 'raising revenue' and therefore unconstitutional because it originated in the Senate rather than in the House of Representatives, as required by Art. 3, Sec. 33 . . . . This constitutional limitation is confined to bills which levy taxes in the strict sense, and does not extend to bills for other purposes which may incidently [sic] create revenue. Day Land and Cattle Co. v. State, [] 4 S.W. 865 (1887). This construction is almost uniformly followed in jurisdictions with identical or similar constitutional provisions. 1 Sutherland, Statutory Construction § 806 (3rd ed. 1943).")
  • Gieb v. State, 21 S.W. 190, 190 (Tex.Crim.App. 1893) ("This provision of the constitution has reference to bills raising revenue for such general purposes as the legislature is required or authorized to raise, and to cover such appropriations as are made by that body, and does not apply to laws of special or local character, nor to such police regulations as are put into operation by a vote of the people in particular localities. If the law be local in its operation, and the tax an incident to it, or the tax is to be raised by a municipal corporation for purposes and objects specified in its charter, it is not a revenue law, within the contemplation of the cited provision of the constitution.")

Library Resources

Online Resources