Billions at Stake in Tuesday's Election

Billions of dollars will be at stake when Texas voters head to the polls on Tuesday, KPRC Local 2 reported.

The election could impact everything from your home and your health to how you get around the state.

Putting a cap on property appraisal hikes has been the holy grail of Texas Republicans for years. If Proposition 3 passes, they'll finally have it. And Democrats said they are all right with it, too.


"This would mean in any given year, your appraisal value can't go up more than 10 percent, so you don't get really stung with horrendous unexpected increases in taxes," said Gerry Birnberg, with the Harris County Democratic Party.

"Its a first step in the right direction. But ultimately that cap needs to be brought down from 10 percent to 3 percent or lower," said Jared Woodfill, with the Harris County Republican Party.

Republicans oppose two other high profile proposals.

Proposition 12, which would allow the Texas Department of Transportation to sell up to $5 billion in bonds for road projects.

Local Democrats said they believe that's a good alternative to the Trans Texas Corridor, the statewide network of toll roads TxDOT wants to build it despite strong opposition.

"If there's $5 billion available for highway improvement project through issuing bonds, it means we don't have to raise that $5 billion through toll roads," Birnberg said.

But what concerns Republicans is that there's nothing in the proposal that says TxDOT can't spend the money for toll roads.

"Republican voters are skeptical. They're skeptical about what's going to happen to the money. They're skeptical about what's going to happen with respect to toll roads, and so I think there's a real hesitancy to give TxDOT an additional $5 billion," Woodfill said.

And there's a big divide over Proposition 15, which would authorize up to $3 billion in bonds to pay for cancer research.

Democrats said that could be a boon for Houston and the Texas Medical Center.

"That would be a core industry for Houston and for Texas. That would be something Texans could be so in favor of and so proud of," Birnberg said.

Republicans don't have a problem with funding cancer research. They just don't want to borrow money to do it.

"If this is the way we want to spend it, let's take the money out of our own account. Let's not borrow it and place the debt on future generations," Woodfill said.

The polls open at 7 a.m. on Tuesday.