Texas Constitution:Article I, Section 16 and Texas Constitution:Article III, Section 49-d-13: Difference between pages

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{{DISPLAYTITLE:Article I, Section 16 of the Texas Constitution (''<small>"Bills of Attainder; Ex Post Facto or Retroactive Laws; Impairing Obligation of Contracts"</small>'')}}{{Texas Constitution|text=Adopted February 15, 1876:
{{DISPLAYTITLE:Article III, Section 49-d-13 of the Texas Constitution (''<small>"State Water Implementation Revenue Fund for Texas"</small>'')}}{{Texas Constitution|text=Added November 5, 2013:


'''No bill of attainder, ex post facto law, retroactive law, or any law impairing the obligation of contracts, shall be made.'''
'''(a) The State Water Implementation Revenue Fund for Texas is created as a special fund in the State Treasury outside the General Revenue Fund. Money in the State Water Implementation Revenue Fund for Texas shall be administered, without further appropriation, by the Texas Water Development Board or that board's successor in function and shall be used for the purpose of implementing the State Water Plan that is adopted as required by general law by the Texas Water Development Board or that board's successor in function. Separate accounts may be established in the State Water Implementation Revenue Fund for Texas as necessary to administer the fund or authorized projects.'''


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'''(b) The Legislature by general law may authorize the Texas Water Development Board or that board's successor in function to issue bonds and enter into related credit agreements that are payable from all revenues available to the State Water Implementation Revenue Fund for Texas.'''


The federal constitution expressly prohibits the states from enacting bills of attainder, ex post facto laws, and laws impairing the obligation of contracts. However, it does not directly address retroactive laws.
'''(c) The Texas Water Development Board or that board's successor in function shall provide written notice to the Legislative Budget Board or that board's successor in function before issuing a bond pursuant to this section or entering into a related credit agreement that is payable from revenue deposited to the credit of the State Water Implementation Revenue Fund for Texas and shall provide a copy of the proposed bond or agreement to the Legislative Budget Board or that board's successor in function for approval. The proposed bond or agreement shall be considered to be approved unless the Legislative Budget Board or that board's successor in function issues a written disapproval not later than the 21st day after the date on which the staff of that board receives the submission.'''


It is noteworthy that, in the 1934 ''Travelers' Insurance Co. v. Marshall'' decision referenced below, the Texas Supreme Court specifically held that this section's provision regarding the impairment of contracts was stricter than the federal constitution's provision regarding the impairment of contracts. Cf. ''Home Building and Loan Association v. Blaisdell'', 290 U.S. 398, [https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=8045354711683233471#p415 415-16] (1934) ("Appellant contests the validity of Chapter 339 of the Laws of Minnesota of 1933, p. 514, approved April 18, 1933, called the Minnesota Mortgage Moratorium Law, as being repugnant to the contract clause (Art. I, § 10) and the due process and equal protection clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment, of the Federal Constitution.").
'''(d) The State Water Implementation Revenue Fund for Texas consists of: (1) money transferred or deposited to the credit of the fund by general law, including money from any source transferred or deposited to the credit of the fund at the discretion of the Texas Water Development Board or that board's successor in function as authorized by general law; (2) the proceeds of any fee or tax imposed by this state that by statute is dedicated for deposit to the credit of the fund; (3) any other revenue that the Legislature by statute dedicates for deposit to the credit of the fund; (4) investment earnings and interest earned on amounts credited to the fund; (5) the proceeds from the sale of bonds, including revenue bonds issued under this section by the Texas Water Development Board or that board's successor in function for the purpose of providing money for the fund; and (6) money disbursed to the fund from the State Water Implementation Fund for Texas as authorized by general law.'''


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'''(e) The Legislature by general law shall provide for the manner in which the assets of the State Water Implementation Revenue Fund for Texas may be used, subject to the limitations provided by this section. The Legislature by general law may provide for costs of investment of the State Water Implementation Revenue Fund for Texas to be paid from that fund.'''


* ''Fire Prot. Serv., Inc. v. Survitec Survival Prods., Inc.'', 649 S.W.3d 197, [https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=2488607990023532344#p203 203] (Tex. 2022) ("Neither party disputes that their agreement was at-will such that, before the Act's effective date, either party could terminate the agreement at any time for any reason (or no reason) without penalty. Once the Act became effective, however, Survitec could no longer terminate the agreement without good cause. Tex. Bus. & Com. Code § 57.153. Survitec thus argues that the Act is unconstitutionally retroactive because it 'eliminated Survitec's right to have an at-will relationship with FPS.' We disagree.")
'''(f) In each fiscal year in which amounts become due under the bonds or agreements authorized by this section, the Texas Water Development Board or that board's successor in function shall transfer from revenue deposited to the credit of the State Water Implementation Revenue Fund for Texas in that fiscal year an amount that is sufficient to pay: (1) the principal of and interest on the bonds that mature or become due during the fiscal year; and (2) any cost related to the bonds, including payments under related credit agreements that become due during that fiscal year.'''


* ''Tenet Hosps. Ltd. v. Rivera'', 445 S.W.3d 698, [https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=7318417754111240097#p708 708] (Tex. 2014) (footnote omitted) ("We have only upheld constitutional retroactivity challenges four times. In two of those cases, we upheld retroactivity challenges because amendments to statutes of limitations revived claims the previous statutes barred. And in one case, the Legislature extinguished a taxpayer's valid limitations defense to a governmental . . . . We have upheld statutes with shorter grace periods, and we cannot say the three-year grace period M.R. possessed rendered the statute unconstitutional as applied in light of its compelling public interest.")
'''(g) Any obligations authorized by general law to be issued by the Texas Water Development Board or that board's successor in function pursuant to this section shall be special obligations payable solely from amounts in the State Water Implementation Revenue Fund for Texas. Obligations issued by the Texas Water Development Board or that board's successor in function pursuant to this section may not be a constitutional state debt payable from the general revenue of the state.'''


* ''Robinson v. Crown Cork & Seal Co.'', 335 S.W.3d 126, [https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=16340650084678413911#p136 136] (Tex. 2010) (footnote omitted) ("Robinson, like the dissenting opinion in the court of appeals, argues that the test is simply whether vested rights have been impaired . . . . Crown counters that the majority opinion in the court of appeals was correct in focusing instead on the reasonableness of the Legislature's exercise of its police power; the prohibition against retroactive laws does not invalidate a proper exercise of that power despite its impairment of private rights. As each position finds support in our case law, we begin by returning to first principles.")
'''(h) Any dedication or appropriation of revenue to the credit of the State Water Implementation Revenue Fund for Texas may not be modified so as to impair any outstanding bonds secured by a pledge of that revenue unless provisions have been made for a full discharge of those bonds.'''


* ''Johnson v. Davis'', 178 S.W.3d 230, [https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=6868695484403825373#p240 240] (Tex.App.–Houston [14th Dist.] 2005, denied) (citations omitted) ("At common law, attainder was 'the act of extinguishing a person's civil rights when that person is sentenced to death or declared an outlaw for committing a felony or treason.' A bill of attainder is a legislative act that applies to a named individual or to an easily identified member of a group in such a way as to inflict punishment without a trial. . . . Because the DNA database system does not involve punishment, it does not violate the prohibition against bills of attainder. Accordingly, Johnson's claim lacks merit.")
'''(i) Money in the State Water Implementation Revenue Fund for Texas is dedicated by this constitution for purposes of Section [[Texas Constitution:Article VIII, Section 22|22]], Article VIII, of this constitution.'''


* ''Barshop v. Medina County Underground Water Conservation Dist.'', 925 S.W.2d 618, [https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=5566571311140648897#p633 633-35] (Tex. 1996) ("Plaintiffs claim the Act violates this provision because it is an ex post facto law, a retroactive law, and it impairs the obligation of contracts. We will examine each of these claims in turn. . . . Accordingly, we determine that the Act is not invalid under the contract clause because it is a valid exercise of the police power necessary to safeguard the public safety and welfare. The Act is therefore not subject to any of Plaintiffs' facial attacks under article I, section 16 of the Texas Constitution.")
'''(j) This section being intended only to establish a basic framework and not to be a comprehensive treatment of the State Water Implementation Revenue Fund for Texas, there is hereby reposed in the Legislature full power to implement and effectuate the design and objects of this section, including the power to delegate such duties, responsibilities, functions, and authority to the Texas Water Development Board or that board's successor in function as the Legislature believes necessary.'''


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* ''Grimes v. State'', 807 S.W.2d 582, [https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=4397994099606859048#p586 586] (Tex.Crim.App. 1991) ("Since Texas first became a State, we have constitutionally prohibited the making of ''ex post facto'' legislation, see Texas Constitution Article I, Section 16, (1845) Texas Constitution Article I, Section 14 (1861, 1866 and 1869); Texas Constitution Article I, Section 16 (1876), and in so doing Texas courts have followed the Supreme Court's analysis in interpreting the Texas Constitutions. For example, ''Holt v. State'', 2 Tex. 363 (1847), was one of the first cases in which the Court undertook to interpret our constitutional prohibition against ''ex post facto'' legislation.")
None.


* ''Texas Water Rights Comm'n v. Wright'', 464 S.W.2d 642, [https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=8133383173221091332#p648 648] (Tex. 1971) (citation omitted) ("The Texas Constitution, unlike the Federal Constitution, has a specific prohibition against retroactive laws. The provision in the State Constitution broadly protects rights, although they may not be rights in property. A right has been defined to be 'a well-founded claim, and a well-founded claim means nothing more nor less than a claim recognized or secured by law.' Permittees urge that Article 7519a is invalid because it nullifies their vested rights. . . . Mere retroactivity is not sufficient to invalidate a statute.")
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* ''Hutchings v. Slemons'', 174 S.W.2d 487, [https://texaslegalguide.com/images/174_SW2_487.pdf#page=4 490-91] (Tex. 1943) ("It requires no discussion to show that to deny the broker the right to file suit and to offer evidence of his valid parol contract through remedial legislation . . . . It follows from what we have said that in our opinion the legislature did not intend the act in question to operate retroactively and that said act has no application to the oral contract in suit. But, if such a construction is required, the act in question is void in so far as it operates upon contracts made prior to the effective date of the act because violative of Article 1, Section 16 of the Constitution of Texas.")
None.


* ''Travelers' Insurance Co. v. Marshall'', 76 S.W.2d 1007, [https://texaslegalguide.com/images/076_SW2_1007.pdf#page=18 1024] (Tex. 1934) ("So, in view of the history of the adoption of the contract clause in the Federal Constitution, its incorporation in the organic laws of the several states, and the long judicial interpretation thereof by . . . , there is no doubt whatever but that section 16 of our Bill of Rights (article 1 of the Constitution) prohibits the enactment of moratory legislation which impairs the obligation of contracts, even though enacted during an industrial depression, such as this country had previously suffered in 1819, 1837, 1857, 1861-1865, and 1873.")
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* ''Mellinger v. City of Houston'', 3 S.W. 249, [https://texaslegalguide.com/images/003_SW_249.pdf#page=6 254-55] (Tex. 1887) ("The states to which we have referred are the only ones which have constitutional provisions in effect the same as exists in this state. The section of the constitution [prohibiting the enactment of retroactive laws] was considered in the case of ''De Cordova v. City of Galveston'', 4 Tex. 480; and, while the facts in that case did not call for the decision of the question before us, it did call for a determination of the character of laws which the constitution forbids. It was said that '. . . .' We have no doubt that the law is thus correctly stated.")
 
* ''Hamilton v. Flinn'', 21 Tex. 713, [https://texaslegalguide.com/images/021_Tex_713.pdf#page=4 716-17] (1858) ("It is very clear that the rights of forced heirship, under the law of 1840, were, although inchoate, but a mere expectancy during the life of the ancestor, which did not vest nor have vitality until his death; that the ''status'' and rights of forced heirs being the creatures of law, must derive their existence and force from the law under which they vest or are brought into existence . . . . The heirs having no rights cannot complain of an approval by the legislature, expressly or by implication, of wills previously made but not fixed by the death of the maker.")


* ''DeCordova v. City of Galveston'', 4 Tex. 470, [https://texaslegalguide.com/images/004_Tex_470.pdf#page=6 479-80] (1849) ("The cases to which reference has been made, and the opinions of the courts in expounding this constitutional inhibition, will serve to illustrate the intention of the convention in imposing the restriction. Laws are deemed retrospective and within the constitutional prohibition which by retrospective operation . . . or if an attempt were made by law, either by implication or expressly, to revive causes of action already barred, such legislation would be retrospective within the intent of the prohibition, and would therefore be wholly inoperative.")
None.


|seo_title=Article I, Section 16 of the Texas Constitution ("Bills of Attainder; Ex Post Facto or Retroactive Laws; Impairing Obligation of Contracts")
|seo_title=Article III, Section 49-d-13 of the Texas Constitution ("State Water Implementation Revenue Fund for Texas")
|seo_keywords=Article 1 Section 16, retroactive laws, laws impairing obligation of contracts
|seo_keywords=Article 3 Section 49-d-13, water bonds, debt authorization
|seo_description=No bill of attainder, ex post facto law, retroactive law, or any law impairing the obligation of contracts, shall be made.
|seo_description=The State Water Implementation Revenue Fund for Texas is created as a special fund in the State Treasury.
|seo_image_alt=Texas Bill of Rights
|seo_image=Texas_Constitution_of_1876_Article_3.jpg
|seo_image_alt=Article III: Legislative Department


}}
}}


[[Category:Texas Bill of Rights]]
[[Category:Water Law]]
[[Category:Criminal Law]]
[[Category:TxCon ArtIII Sec]]
[[Category:Contract Law]]
[[Category:TxCon ArtI Sec]]

Revision as of 20:01, August 8, 2023

Added November 5, 2013:

(a) The State Water Implementation Revenue Fund for Texas is created as a special fund in the State Treasury outside the General Revenue Fund. Money in the State Water Implementation Revenue Fund for Texas shall be administered, without further appropriation, by the Texas Water Development Board or that board's successor in function and shall be used for the purpose of implementing the State Water Plan that is adopted as required by general law by the Texas Water Development Board or that board's successor in function. Separate accounts may be established in the State Water Implementation Revenue Fund for Texas as necessary to administer the fund or authorized projects.

(b) The Legislature by general law may authorize the Texas Water Development Board or that board's successor in function to issue bonds and enter into related credit agreements that are payable from all revenues available to the State Water Implementation Revenue Fund for Texas.

(c) The Texas Water Development Board or that board's successor in function shall provide written notice to the Legislative Budget Board or that board's successor in function before issuing a bond pursuant to this section or entering into a related credit agreement that is payable from revenue deposited to the credit of the State Water Implementation Revenue Fund for Texas and shall provide a copy of the proposed bond or agreement to the Legislative Budget Board or that board's successor in function for approval. The proposed bond or agreement shall be considered to be approved unless the Legislative Budget Board or that board's successor in function issues a written disapproval not later than the 21st day after the date on which the staff of that board receives the submission.

(d) The State Water Implementation Revenue Fund for Texas consists of: (1) money transferred or deposited to the credit of the fund by general law, including money from any source transferred or deposited to the credit of the fund at the discretion of the Texas Water Development Board or that board's successor in function as authorized by general law; (2) the proceeds of any fee or tax imposed by this state that by statute is dedicated for deposit to the credit of the fund; (3) any other revenue that the Legislature by statute dedicates for deposit to the credit of the fund; (4) investment earnings and interest earned on amounts credited to the fund; (5) the proceeds from the sale of bonds, including revenue bonds issued under this section by the Texas Water Development Board or that board's successor in function for the purpose of providing money for the fund; and (6) money disbursed to the fund from the State Water Implementation Fund for Texas as authorized by general law.

(e) The Legislature by general law shall provide for the manner in which the assets of the State Water Implementation Revenue Fund for Texas may be used, subject to the limitations provided by this section. The Legislature by general law may provide for costs of investment of the State Water Implementation Revenue Fund for Texas to be paid from that fund.

(f) In each fiscal year in which amounts become due under the bonds or agreements authorized by this section, the Texas Water Development Board or that board's successor in function shall transfer from revenue deposited to the credit of the State Water Implementation Revenue Fund for Texas in that fiscal year an amount that is sufficient to pay: (1) the principal of and interest on the bonds that mature or become due during the fiscal year; and (2) any cost related to the bonds, including payments under related credit agreements that become due during that fiscal year.

(g) Any obligations authorized by general law to be issued by the Texas Water Development Board or that board's successor in function pursuant to this section shall be special obligations payable solely from amounts in the State Water Implementation Revenue Fund for Texas. Obligations issued by the Texas Water Development Board or that board's successor in function pursuant to this section may not be a constitutional state debt payable from the general revenue of the state.

(h) Any dedication or appropriation of revenue to the credit of the State Water Implementation Revenue Fund for Texas may not be modified so as to impair any outstanding bonds secured by a pledge of that revenue unless provisions have been made for a full discharge of those bonds.

(i) Money in the State Water Implementation Revenue Fund for Texas is dedicated by this constitution for purposes of Section 22, Article VIII, of this constitution.

(j) This section being intended only to establish a basic framework and not to be a comprehensive treatment of the State Water Implementation Revenue Fund for Texas, there is hereby reposed in the Legislature full power to implement and effectuate the design and objects of this section, including the power to delegate such duties, responsibilities, functions, and authority to the Texas Water Development Board or that board's successor in function as the Legislature believes necessary.

Editor Comments

None.

—Attorney Steve Smith

Recent Decisions

None.

Historic Decisions

None.

Library Resources

Online Resources

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