Government

Texas is governed under its fifth constitution, adopted in 1876 and frequently amended. An amendment to the Constitution needs to be approved by two-thirds of the members of each house of the state Legislature. Then, it must get the approval of a majority of the voters in a statewide election.

The chief executive of the state is the governor, who is elected for a four-year term and may be reelected an unlimited number of times. The lieutenant governor, attorney general, comptroller of public accounts, commissioner of agriculture, and commissioner of the general land office are elected for four years. The secretary of state is appointed by the governor for a four-year term.

The three members of the Railroad Commission of Texas are elected by the voters. The state's petroleum production is controlled by this group by deciding how much oil the Texas petroleum industry can pump each year.

The state legislature meets in odd-numbered years. It consists of a Senate of 31 members elected for four years and a House of Representatives of 150 members elected for two years. Both houses have meetings in odd-numbered years on the second Tuesday in January. The law requires that regular sessions be limited to 140 calendar days and special legislative sessions are allowed to last only 30 days.

The judicial branch of the government is made up of a supreme court, the highest civil court in Texas and several lower courts. The Supreme Court has a chief justice and eight justices. The judges of all state courts are elected. The Court of Criminal Appeals is the highest criminal court. It has nine judges, including a presiding judge. Members of both courts are elected to terms of six years each.

There is a court of appeals in each of the 14 Supreme Judicial districts in Texas. They all have a chief justice, a number of justices and are elected for six-year terms. The number of associate justices varies from 2 to 12. The District Courts are the chief trial courts. A district judge is elected to a four-year term by the voters of each judicial district. The county, municipal, justice of the peace, and criminal district courts are the other trial courts. Judges of all these courts, except municipal courts, are elected to four-year terms. Most municipal court judges are appointed to two-year terms.

Texas has 254 counties. A county commissioners court made up of the county judge and four commissioners governs each county. Administrative duties such as adopting the county budget and setting the county tax rate are performed by this court. County judges and commissioners are elected to four-year terms. The assessor-collector of taxes, the county attorney, the sheriff, and the treasurer are the other county officials. There are more than 1,200 incorporated cities, towns, and villages in Texas and more than 300 cities have home rule. All cities with populations of more than 5,000 are permitted to adopt home rule under the Texas Constitution. Many home-rule cities use either the council-manager or the commission-manager form of government and the other home-rule cities use the mayor-council system of government. It is represented in Congress by 2 senators and 32 representatives.

About half of the state's general revenue (income) is brought in by taxes. The rest mostly comes from federal grants and other U.S. government programs, and from charges for government services. The largest source of tax revenue is a retail sales tax on all items except food and medicine and a motor-fuel use tax is the second largest source of tax revenue. Other sources are a corporation-franchise tax and a tax on petroleum and natural gas production. Individual or corporate income taxes are not collected in Texas.

The Democratic Party historically controlled Texas politics. But in the late 20th century, the Republican Party began gaining strength. In 1978, Bill Clements became the first Republican to be elected governor since 1869. In 1998, George W. Bush became the first Republican governor to be elected to a second term and was elected president of the United States in 2000. Two U.S. presidents were born in Texas: Dwight D. Eisenhower was born in Denison, and Lyndon B. Johnson was born near Stonewall.