The Constitution is highly restrictive: it states that the Texas government has only the powers specifically enumerated therein (it does not have the state equivalent of the United States Constitution's "Necessary and Proper Clause") and also significantly limits the government's ability to take on debt and/or pledge the state's credit for certain obligations. As such, through November 2024, when the most recent election to amend the state constitution was held, 714 amendments have been proposed, of which the voters have approved 530, rejected 181, and interestingly three amendments never made it to the ballot. The number of amendments is somewhat high given that the Texas Constitution allows for only one mode of amendment: amendments initiated and passed by 2/3 of each chamber of the [[Texas Legislature]] and subsequently approved by a majority of the voters. Because of the frequent amendments, it is also the second-longest state constitution behind the extremely verbose [[Alabama Constitution]] even after a recompilation of the latter. Attempts at a total rewrite or major revisions to the Texas Constitution in the 1970's were rejected by voters: the only significant revisions took place in 1969 when the entirety of Article XIII (an obsolete provision dealing with Spanish and Mexican land titles) and 53 other obsolete sections from other Articles were proposed for removal and approved. | The Constitution is highly restrictive: it states that the Texas government has only the powers specifically enumerated therein (it does not have the state equivalent of the United States Constitution's "Necessary and Proper Clause") and also significantly limits the government's ability to take on debt and/or pledge the state's credit for certain obligations. As such, through November 2024, when the most recent election to amend the state constitution was held, 714 amendments have been proposed, of which the voters have approved 530, rejected 181, and interestingly three amendments never made it to the ballot. The number of amendments is somewhat high given that the Texas Constitution allows for only one mode of amendment: amendments initiated and passed by 2/3 of each chamber of the [[Texas Legislature]] and subsequently approved by a majority of the voters. Because of the frequent amendments, it is also the second-longest state constitution behind the extremely verbose [[Alabama Constitution]] even after a recompilation of the latter. Attempts at a total rewrite or major revisions to the Texas Constitution in the 1970's were rejected by voters: the only significant revisions took place in 1969 when the entirety of Article XIII (an obsolete provision dealing with Spanish and Mexican land titles) and 53 other obsolete sections from other Articles were proposed for removal and approved. |