The Attitude To 1869 Constitution In Texas
The Constitution of 1869. A Constitution that “served as the instrument of government for an era that most Texans and traditional historians would regard as the most corrupt and abusive in the state’s history”(Pg59). The governor at the time, Governor E. J. Davis often abused his power. He did things like give large gifts of public funds to interests such as railroads. Davis raised taxes in order to fund public programs that were seen to be wasteful.
Therefore, Many Texans simply refused to pay these taxes, and the state government started to go into debt. As a result of this; “Law and order collapsed, and much of the state’s population fell prey to attacks by Native Americans and outlaws. Instead of using the state police and militia to maintain the peace, Governor Davis made them a part of his powerful political machine and a symbol of tyranny. He took control of voter registration, intimidated unsupportive newspapers, and arrested several political opponents”(Pg59). Because of these things, Texans believed a new Constitution was needed; andUpon regaining control of both the legislative and executive branches of the government in 1974, the Democrats was determined to replace the unpopular Constitution.
First, ”The convention cut salaries for governing officials, placed strict limits on property taxes, and restricted state borrowing; it also was miserly with the power it granted government officials”(Pg59). The convention did this when writing the Constitution in retaliation of Davis’ tyrannical tendencies. Cutting salaries for governing officials would not only save money it would reduce conflict of interest (which we know now didn't work). Placing strict limits on property tax would reduce the opportunity to tax unnecessarily. Most importantly though, the convention was “miserly' with the power it granted officials, especially the Governor because Texans did not want a government in which had too much control like they saw with Davis.
Our Constitution writers wanted an easy amendment process. “From 1876 through January 2015, the Texas State Legislature proposed 666 amendments to the state's current constitution. Through November 2014, 663 have gone before Texas voters and 484 of those proposed amendments have been approved by voters and added to the constitution; this is an overall 73 percent approval rate”(BP). The reason there have been so many proposed and amended bills is do to the fact that the convention writing the constitution purposely made the process easy because to much power was in the hands of the government elite. Although this seems like a good idea, in today's government it creates a non-progressive, self-interested legislative body. The officials do not get paid much for what they do, this creates a problem because the overwhelming majority of our lawmakers are wealthy do to the fact that they are the only ones who can afford to do so. This can be a bad thing because these legislators can bring up and pass really any bill they want often acting in self-interest, passing bills to benefit themselves or business partners. Which I believe is exactly what the writers of the Constitution did not want.
Also, our legislature is in charge of redistricting; The process of redrawing district lines while ensuring an equal number of people per district. This creates a tremendous amount of corruption in both parties. The parties fight to gain or maintain control by districting voters in ways to benefit the presiding party because districting in your paties favor wins elections.
