Government of Texas
The government of Texas operates under the Constitution of Texas and consists of a unitary democratic state government that uses the Dillon Rule, as well as governments at the county and municipal levels.
Austin is the capital of Texas. The State Capitol resembles the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C., but is faced in Texas pink granite and is topped by a statue of the "Goddess of Liberty" holding aloft a five-point Texas star. The capitol is also notable for purposely being built seven feet taller than the U.S. national capitol.[1]
Executive
The statewide elected officials are:
The executive branch consists of the Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Comptroller of Public Accounts, Land Commissioner, Attorney General, Agriculture Commissioner, the three-member Texas Railroad Commission, the State Board of Education, and the Secretary of State. Texas has a plural executive branch system which limits the power of the Governor. Except for the Secretary of State, all executive officers are elected independently making them directly answerable to the public, not the Governor.[2]
Partly because of many elected officials, the governor's powers are quite limited in comparison to other state governors or the U.S. President. In popular lore and belief the lieutenant governor, who heads the Senate and appoints its committees, has more power than the governor. The governor commands the state militia and can veto bills passed by the Legislature and call special sessions of the Legislature (this power is exclusive to the governor and can be exercised as often as desired). The governor also appoints members of various executive boards and fills judicial vacancies between elections. All members of the executive branch are elected statewide except for the Secretary of State (appointed) and the State Board of Education (each of its 15 members are elected from single-member districts).
State agencies
The executive branch also includes several boards and commissions that are constituted through a mixture of elections and gubernatorial appointments confirmed by the Senate.[3] Even with the Governor appointing several members of boards and commissions, the overall effect is a sprawling network of administrative bodies that neither the Governor nor the Legislature are able to coordinate or completely control.[3] The Governor appoints the directors of a handful of state agencies, and the Governor exercises direct authority over these offices.[3] Most state agencies are headquartered in Austin.
The Texas Administrative Code contains the compiled and indexed regulations of Texas state agencies and is published yearly by the Secretary of State.[4] The Texas Register contains proposed rules, notices, executive orders, and other information of general use to the public and is published weekly by the Secretary of State.[5]
Legislature
The Texas Legislature is bicameral. The Texas House of Representatives has 150 members, while the Texas Senate has 31. The Speaker of the House presides over the House, and the Lieutenant Governor presides over the Senate. It is a powerful arm of the Texas government not only because of its power of the purse to control and direct the activities of state government and the strong constitutional connections between it and the Lieutenant Governor, but also due to Texas's plural executive.
The Legislature meets in regular session only once every two years for just over 100 days. The Legislature cannot call itself into special session; only the governor may call a special session, and may call as many sessions as often as wanted. Its session laws are published in the official General and Special Laws of the State of Texas;[6] most, but not all, of these statutes are codified as the Texas Statutes.[7]
Judiciary
The judicial system of Texas has a reputation as one of the most complex in the United States,[8] with many layers and many overlapping jurisdictions.[9]
Texas has two courts of last resort: the Texas Supreme Court, which hears civil cases, and the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. Except in the case of some municipal benches, partisan elections choose all of the judges at all levels of the judiciary; the governor fills vacancies by appointment. All members of the Texas Supreme Court and the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals are elected statewide.
The Municipal Courts are the most active courts, with the County and District Courts handling most other cases and often sharing the same buildings. Administration is the responsibility of the Supreme Court, which is aided by the Texas Office of Court Administration, the Texas Judicial Council and the State Bar of Texas (the Texas Bar).
Local government
County
Texas has a total of 254 counties, by far the largest number of counties of any state.
Each county is run by a five-member Commissioners' Court consisting of four commissioners elected from single-member districts (called commissioner precincts) and a county judge elected at-large. The county judge does not have authority to veto a decision of the commissioners court; the judge votes along with the commissioners (being the tie-breaker in close calls). In smaller counties, the county judge actually does perform judicial duties, but in larger counties the judge's role is limited to serving on the commissioners court and certifying elections. Certain officials, such as the sheriff and tax collector, are elected separately by the voters, but the commissioners court determines their office budgets, and sets overall county policy. All county elections are partisan, and commissioner precincts are redistricted after each ten year Census both to equalize the voting power in each and in consideration of the political party preferences of the voters in each.
Counties in Texas have limited regulatory (ordinance) authority.[10] Counties also have much less legal power than home rule municipalities. They cannot pass ordinances (local laws with penalties for violations) like cities can. Counties in Texas do not have zoning power (except for limited instances around some reservoirs, military establishments, historic sites and airports, and in large counties over "communication facility structures": visible antennas). However, counties can collect a small portion of property tax and spend it to provide residents with needed services or to employ the power of eminent domain. Counties also have the power to regulate outdoor lighting near observatories and military bases. Counties do not have "home rule" authority; whatever powers they enjoy are specifically granted by the State (as an example, most counties have no authority to sanction property owners whose lands fill with weeds and trash).
As one textbook produced for use in Texas schools has openly acknowledged, Texas counties are prone to inefficient operations and are vulnerable to corruption, for several reasons.[11] First, most of them do not have a merit system but operate on a spoils system, so that many county employees obtain their positions through loyalty to a particular political party and commissioner rather than whether they actually have the skills and experience appropriate to their positions.[11] Second, most counties have not centralized purchasing into a single procurement department which would be able to seek quantity discounts and carefully scrutinize bids and contract awards for unusual patterns.[11] Third, in 90 percent of Texas counties, each commissioner is individually responsible for planning and executing their own road construction and maintenance program for their own precinct, which results in poor coordination and duplicate construction machinery.[11]
Unlike other states, Texas does not allow for consolidated city-county governments. Cities and counties (as well as other political entities) are permitted to enter "interlocal agreements" to share services (for instance, a city and a school district may enter into agreements with the county whereby the county bills for and collects property taxes for the city and school district; thus, only one tax bill is sent instead of three). Texas does allow municipalities to merge, but populous Harris County, Texas consolidating with its primary city, Houston, Texas, to form the nation's second largest city (after New York City) is not a prospect under current law.
Municipal
Texas does not have townships; areas within a county are either incorporated or unincorporated. Incorporated areas are part of a city, though the city may contract with the county for needed services. Unincorporated areas are not part of a city; in these areas the county has authority for law enforcement and road maintenance. Their local ordinances, rules, and police regulations are usually codified in a "code of ordinances".[10]
Cities are classified as either "general law" or "home rule". A city may elect home rule status (i.e., draft an independent city charter) once it exceeds 5,000 population and the voters agree to home rule. Otherwise, it is classified as general law and has very limited powers. One example of the difference in the two structures regards annexation. General law cities cannot annex adjacent unincorporated areas without the property owner's consent; home rule cities may annex without consent but must provide essential services within a specified period of time (generally within three years) or the property owner may file suit to be disannexed and reimbursed. Once a city adopts home rule it may continue to keep this status even if the population later falls below 5,000.
Larger cities (those exceeding 225,000) have a unique authority: that of "limited annexation", whereby an adjoining area may be annexed for purposes of imposing city ordinances related to safety and building codes. The residents can vote for mayor and council races but cannot vote in bond elections (and, consequently, the city cannot directly collect city sales tax from businesses or city property tax from owners).
The purpose of limited annexation is to allow the city to control development in an area that it eventually will fully annex; it is meant to do so within three years (though it can arrange "non-annexation agreements" with local property owners), and those agreements with municipal utility districts also cloud the picture. During each of the three years, the city is to develop land use planning for the area(zoning, for example), identify needed capital improvements and ongoing projects, and identify the financing for such as well as to provide essential municipal services.[12]
Municipal elections in Texas are nonpartisan in the sense that candidates do not appear on the ballot on party lines, and do not run as party tickets. However, a candidate's party affiliation is usually known or can be discerned with minimal effort (as the candidate most likely has supported other candidates on partisan tickets). In some instances, an informal citizen's group will support a slate of candidates that it desires to see elected (often in opposition to an incumbent group with which it disagreed on an issue). However, each candidate must be voted on individually.
Special districts
In addition to cities and counties, Texas has numerous special districts. As with municipal elections in Texas, board members or trustees are elected on a nonpartisan basis or may be appointed.
The most common is the independent school district, which (with one exception) has a board of trustees that is independent of any other governing authority. School district boundaries are not generally aligned with city or county boundaries; it is common for a school district to cover one or more counties or for a large city to be served by several school districts. The Texas Education Agency governs public education in Texas.
Other special districts include Groundwater Conservation Districts (regulatory agencies), river authorities, water supply districts (for irrigation or municipal supply), public hospitals, road districts and community colleges.
See also
- Politics of Texas
- Elections in Texas
- Law of Texas
- United States Congressional Delegations from Texas
References
- ^ Rathjen, Frederick (April 1957). "The Texas State House". Southwestern Historical Quarterly. LX (4). American Heritage Publishing.
- ^ "The Plural Executive" (Document). University of Texas at Austin. 2005.
{{cite document}}: Unknown parameter|accessdate=ignored (help); Unknown parameter|archivedate=ignored (help); Unknown parameter|archiveurl=ignored (help); Unknown parameter|format=ignored (help); Unknown parameter|url=ignored (help) - ^ a b c "The Executive Branch". Texas politics. University of Texas at Austin. Retrieved 4 April 2014.
- ^ Quarles & Cordon 2003, p. 305.
- ^ Quarles & Cordon 2003, pp. 302–304.
- ^ Research Division of the Texas Legislative Council. Guide to Texas Legislative Information (PDF). Texas Legislative Council. p. 9. OCLC 36222302.
- ^ Quarles, Brandon D.; Cordon, Matthew C. (2003). Legal Research for the Texas Practitioner. Wm. S. Hein Publishing. p. 219. ISBN 0-8377-3626-9.
{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - ^ http://texaspolitics.laits.utexas.edu/3_1_0.html
- ^ Kraemer, RIchard (2009). "Texas Politics, 10th edition". chapter 2, page 48. HEINLE Cengage.
{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires|journal=(help) - ^ a b Quarles & Cordon 2003, p. 225.
- ^ a b c d Charldean Newell, David Forrest Prindle, and James W. Riddlesperger, Jr., Texas Politics, 11th ed. (Boston: Cengage Learning, 2011), 376-381.
- ^ "Limited Purpose Annexation" (PDF). SanAntonio.gov. Retrieved 2006-04-29.
External links
- Texas.gov official website
- Window on State Government, Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts
- Texas Politics Textbook
- Texas Government Newsletter
- Handbook of Texas
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| U.S. senators |  | |
| State government | ||
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| Supreme Court | ||
| Court of Criminal Appeals | ||