Texas Almanac, 1952-1953 Page: 374
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374 TEXAS ALMANAC.-1952-1953.
Article VIII.-(Continued.); Article IX.
ture shall pass necessary laws for the proper
administration of this section.
[Note-The foregoing Sec. 20 of Art. VIII, an
amendment, was added (1) to restrict assessed
value to true market value, and (2) to provide for
stated discounts for prepayment of taxes. Adopted
in an election Aug. 23, 1937.]
ARTICLE. IX.-COUNTI ES
Sec. 1. Creation and Organization of Coun-
ties; Changing of County Lines.-The Legls-
lature shall have power to create counties for
the convenience of the people, subject to the
following provisions:
First. In the territory of the State exterior
to all counties now existing, no new counties
shall be created with a less area than 900
square miles, in a square form, unless pre-
vented by pre-existing boundary lines. Should
the State lines render this impracticable in
border counties, the area may be less. The
territory referred to may, at any time, in
whole or in part, be divided into counties in
advance of population and attached for judi-
cial and land surveying purposes to the most
convenient organized county or counties.
Second. Within the territory of any county
or counties now existing, no new county shall
be created with a less area than 700 square
miles, nor shall any such county now existing
be reduced to a less area than 700 square miles.
No new counties shall be created so as to
approach nearer than twelve miles of the
county seat of any county from which it may,
in whole or in part, be taken. Counties of a
less area than 900, but of 700 or more square
miles, within counties now existing, may be
created by a two-thirds vote of each house of
the Legislature, taken by yeas and nays, and
entered on the journals. Any county now
existing may be reduced to an area of not less
than 700 square miles by a like two-thirds
vote. When any part of a county is stricken
off and attached to or created into another
county, the part stricken off shall be holden
for and obliged to pay its proportion of all
the liabilities then existing of the county from
which it was taken, in such manner as may
be prescribed by law. b
Third. No part of any existing county shall
be detached from it and attached to another
existing county until the proposition for such
change shall have been submitted, in such
manner as may be provided by law, to a vote
of the electors of both counties, and shall
have received a majority of those voting on
the question in each.
County Seats
Sec. 2. How County Seats Are Created and
Changed.-The Legislature shall pass laws
regulating the manner of removing county
seats, but no county seat situated within five
miles of the geographical center of the county
shall be removed except by a vote of two
thirds of all electors voting on the subject.
A majority of such electors, however, voting
at such election, may remove a county seat
from a point more than-five miles from a
geographical center of the county to a point
within five miles of such center, in either
case the center to be determined by a certifi-
cate from the Commissioner of the General
Land Office.
Sec. 3. Home Rule.-(1) Holding the belief
that the highest degree of local self-govern-
ment which is consistent with the efficient
conduct of those affairs by necessity lodged
in the Nation and the State will prove most
responsive to the will of the people, and re-
sult to reward their diligence and intelligence
by greater economy and efficiency in their
local governmental affairs, it hereby Is or-
dained:
(2) Any county having a population of
sixty-two thousand (62,000) or more according
to the then last Federal census may adopt a
county home rule charter, to embrace thosepowers appropriate hereto, within the specific
limitations hereinafter provided. It further is
provided that the Legislature, by a favoring
vote of two thirds of the total membership of
both the Senate and the House of Repre-
sentatives, may authorize any county, having
a population less than that above specified,
to proceed hereunder for the adoption of a
charter; however, as a condition for such
authorization, it is required that notice of the
intent to seek legislative authority hereunder
must be published in one or more newspapers,
to give general circulation in the county af-
fected, not less than once per week for four
(4) consecutive weeks, and the first of such
publications shall appear not less than thirty
(30) days next prior to the time an act making
proposal hereunder may be introduced in the
Legislature. No county home rule charter may
be adopted by any county save upon a favor-
ing vote of the resident qualifying electors of
the affected county. In elections submitting
to the voters a proposal to adopt a charter
(unless otherwise provided by a two-thirds
vote of the total membership of each house
of the Legislature) the votes cast. by the
qualified electors residing within the limits of
all the incorporated cities and towns of the
county shall be separately kept but collective-
ly counted and the votes of the qualified elec-
tors of the county who do not reside within
the limits of any incorporated city or town
likewise shall be separately kept and sepa-
rately counted, and unless there be a favoring
majority of the votes cast within and a fa-
voring majority of the votes cast without such
collective cities and towns, the charter shall
not be adopted. It is expressly forbidden that
any such charter may inconsonantly affect
the operation of the general laws of the State
relating to the judicial, tax, fiscal, educa-
tional, police, highway and health systems,
or any other department of the State's supe-
rior government. Nothing herein contained
shall be deemed to authorize the adoption of
a charter provision inimical to or inconsistent
with the sovereignty and established public
policies of this State, and no provision having
such vice shall have validity as against the
State. No charter provision may operate to
impair the exemption of homesteads as estab-
lished by this Constitution and the status
relating thereto.
(3) a. A charter hereunder may provide:
the continuance of a County Commissioners'
Court, as now constituted, to serve as the
governing body of a county to operate here-
under; or, may provide for a governing body
otherwise constituted, which shall be elective,
and service therein shall be upon such quali-
fications, for such terms, under such plan of
representation, and upon such conditions of
tenure and compensation as may be fixed by
any such charter. The terms of service in
such governing body may exceed two (2)
years, but shall not exceed six (6) years. In
any event, in addition to the powers and
duties provided by any such charter such
governing body shall exercise all powers, and
discharge all duties which, in the absence of
the provisions hereof, would devolve by law
on County Commissioners and County Com-
missioners' Courts. Further, any such charter
may provide for the organization, reorganiza-
tion, establishment' and administration of the
government of the county, including the con-
trol and regulation of the performance of
and the compensation for all duties required
in the conduct of the county affairs, subject
to the limitations herein provided.
b. A charter hereunder may provide that
judges of County Courts (including that
County Court designated in this Constitution).
and Justices of the Peace be compensated
upon a salary basis in lieu of fees. The juris-
diction of the County Court designated in this
Constitution, and the duties of the Judges
thereof, may be confined to that general
jurisdiction of a probate court, which else-
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Texas Almanac, 1952-1953, book, 1951; Dallas, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth117137/m1/376/: accessed April 28, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.