Article VIII, Section 24 of the Texas Constitution

This section was repealed November 5, 2019.

Editor Comments

The former section, added in 1993 and never amended, governed the imposition of a tax on the incomes of natural persons.

It required voter approval of such a tax and any increase therein and dedicated all the revenue from such a tax to education.

The ballot proposition that repealed this section also amended Article VIII, Section 1(c) and added Article VIII, Section 24-a.

—Attorney Steve Smith

Recent Decisions

• In re Allcat Claims Service, L.P., 356 S.W.3d 455, 457 (Tex. 2011) ("Allcat claims it is entitled to a refund for two reasons. First, the tax facially violates Article VIII, Section 24 [] because it is a tax on the net incomes of its natural-person partners that was not approved in a statewide referendum. Second, as applied by the Comptroller to Allcat and its partners, the franchise tax violates Article VIII, Section 1(a) [], which requires taxation to be equal and uniform. We hold that: (1) the tax is not a tax imposed on the net incomes of the individual partners, thus it does not facially violate Article VIII, Section 24; and (2) we do not have jurisdiction to consider the equal and uniform challenge.")

Historic Decisions

None.

Library Resources

• Vernon's Annotated Constitution of the State of Texas (this multi-volume and up-to-date resource is available at all law libraries and many municipal libraries)

• The Texas State Constitution: A Reference Guide (this one-volume resource is available at most law libraries and some municipal libraries)

• The Constitution of the State of Texas: An Annotated and Comparative Analysis (this two-volume resource is available at most law libraries and some municipal libraries)

Online Resources

• Constitution of the State of Texas (1876) (this resource is published and maintained by the University of Texas School of Law)

• Amendments to the Texas Constitution Since 1876 (this resource is published and regularly updated by the Legislative Council)

• Reports Analyzing Proposed Amendments (this resource is published and regularly updated by the Legislative Reference Library)