Article VIII, Section 10 of the Texas Constitution
Adopted February 15, 1876:
The Legislature shall have no power to release the inhabitants of, or property in, any county, city or town from the payment of taxes levied for State or county purposes, unless in case of great public calamity in any such county, city or town, when such release may be made by a vote of two-thirds of each house of the Legislature.
Editor Comments
None.
Recent Decisions
None.
Historic Decisions
- Jones v. Williams, 45 S.W.2d 130, 131-32 (Tex. 1931) ("It is to be noted that the constitutional provision does not authorize the release of taxes over the state at large, even for public calamities. . . . What we do say is that, from an interpretation of the language used in section 10 of article 8, in the light of the definitions of 'calamity' quoted, and the rule of construction stated above, it is clear that the type of public calamity within the meaning of the language employed is one due to natural causes, and which ordinarily confines its destructive effect to subdivisions of the state; and that the section has no reference to world-wide, nation-wide, and state-wide cycles of industrial and business depression.")
Library Resources
- Vernon's Annotated Constitution of the State of Texas (multi-volume and up-to-date resource available at all law and many municipal libraries)
- The Texas State Constitution: A Reference Guide (one-volume resource available at most law and some municipal libraries)
- The Constitution of the State of Texas: An Annotated and Comparative Analysis (two-volume resource available at most law and some municipal libraries)
Online Resources
- Constitution of the State of Texas (1876) (resource published online and maintained by the University of Texas School of Law)
- Amendments to the Texas Constitution Since 1876 (resource published online and regularly updated by the Legislative Council)
- Reports Analyzing Proposed Amendments (resource published online and regularly updated by the Legislative Reference Library)