Dallam County voters approve alcohol sales
By Bill Kelly
Sports Editor
A very small percentage of statewide voters approved 13-of-14 proposed amendments to the Texas Constitution on Tuesday November 7, while voters in Dallam County approved the sale of alcohol, including mixed beverages, within the county limits.
The only local election in either Hartley County or Dallam County was Dallam’s Proposition 1, which gave voters the chance to vote for or against “The legal sale of all alcoholic beverages, including mixed beverages.” 237 voted for the proposition, while 105 voted against it, so the sale of alcoholic beverages, including mixed beverages will become legal in Dallam County.
Statewide, there were 14 potential amendments to the Texas Constitution that had been approved by the state legislature and needed voter approval. 13 of them were approved. The only one that was not approved was Proposition 13, which proposed to raise the mandatory retirement age for state justices and judges. It was defeated statewide, with 62.69% voting against it and only 37.31% voting in favor of raising the retirement age.
The propositions that were approved statewide included an Proposition 1, an amendment protecting the right to engage in farming, ranching, timber production, horticulture and wildlife management; Proposition 2, an amendment authorizing a local option exemption from ad valorem taxation by a county or municipality of all or part of the appraised value or real property to operate a child-care facility; Proposition 3, an amendment prohibiting the imposition of an individual wealth or net worth tax, including a tax on the difference between the assets and liabilities of an individual or family; and Proposition 4, an amendment that will provide tax relief by increasing the residence homestead exemption from $40,000 to $100,000, and will also provide certain elderly and disabled property owners with an additional $15,000 in exemptions from property taxes and will require counties with populations of 75,000 or more to limit the terms of appraisal board members to four years.
Also approved were Proposition 5, an amendment that creates a fund of up to $100 million to fund research facilities in Texas universities that don’t have access to the Permanent University Fund; Proposition 6, an amendment that creates the Texas water fund to assist in financing water projects in Texas; Proposition 7, an amendment that will create a $5 billion funding mechanism over a two-year period for the distribution of loans and grants to companies interested in building new natural gas-fueled power plants; Proposition 8, an amendment creating the broadband infrastructure fund to expand highspeed broadband access and assist in the financing of connectivity projects; Proposition 9, an amendment authorizing the 88th Legislature to provide a cost-of-living adjustment to certain annuitants of the Teacher Retirement System of Texas; and Proposition 10, an amendment that will exempt manufacturers of medical or biomedical equipment from paying property taxes on their overall property values.
Three other amendments were also approved. Proposition 11, an amendment that will allow El Paso County to be among 11 other counties allowed to issue bonds supported by property taxes to fund recreational development and improvements; Proposition 12, an amendment providing for the abolition of the office of county treasurer in Galveston County; and Proposition 14, an amendment providing for the creation of the centennial parks conservation fund to be used for the creation and improvement of state parks.
In Dallam County, 350 people cast ballots either on election day or in early voting or absentee voting, which was 12.49%. In Hartley County, 542 voted, which was 19.77%. The vote totals for each proposition are in the table below:
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