Ballot Language:

The constitutional amendment to abolish the constitutional authority for the office of inspector of hides and animals.

HJR-69 History (Enabling legislation HB-1631 did not make it out of the Senate during the waning days of the session)

The ballot language is misleading because the enabling legislation wasn’t enacted. So the only thing this amendment will do if passed is to remove a couple of out of date references in the Constitution. The Legislature will have to try again next session to finally remove this office.

BTW, what is this office, you ask? From the Handbook of Texas Online:

INSPECTOR OF HIDES AND ANIMALS. The office of inspector of hides and animals was established in 1871 and filled by appointment by the governor for a four-year term. The inspector was supposed to aid in the prevention of cattle theft by a thorough inspection of all hides and animals shipped out of the county for sale. After the adoption of the Constitution of 1876qv the office became elective, and the term was shortened to two years. By action of the legislature, many counties were exempt from electing an inspector; about one-third of Texas counties had the official in 1945. Few, if any, counties in Texas continued the office in the 1990s.

The Beaumont Enterprise has a fun article on the office.

Jefferson County never had an inspector of hides until 1992, long after there was any legitimate hide inspecting to be done, according to the county clerk’s office. Marc DeRouen, then a 21-year-old Lamar student, learned about the office in a political science class. A little research, a $50 filing fee and an unopposed campaign later, DeRouen became the county’s first certified inspector of hides.

“I wish I was still hide inspector,” DeRouen, now an investigator with former state Sen. Carl Parker’s law firm, said by phone recently.

DeRouen even printed koozies and T-shirts featuring “the sexiest cow the Democratic Party would allow with a hand slapping it on the …”

BigJolly says: Don’t you miss the fun days of politics? When people had a sense of humor? I think I’ll vote against this in the hopes that they will re-establish the office later. It’d be way cool to find a county without a hide inspector, pay the filing fee and then deputize your buddies. Think of all the hides you could inspect coming out the doors of a N.O.W. convention!

Click to read comments for and against.

From the Texas Legislative Council Summary (note: 131 page pdf file):

Comments by Supporters: No one currently holds the offi ce of inspector of hides and animals in any Texas county. The amendment will clean up the Texas Constitution by removing archaic references to the offi ce. All functions formerly performed by the inspector of hides and animals are currently being performed by other entities. Animal health inspectors inspect hides and animals to control animal diseases. Inspectors from the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association inspect cattle to
prevent theft.

Comments by Opponents: No comments opposing the amendment were made during the house and senate committee hearings or during discussion of the amendment in the house and senate chambers. A review of other sources also revealed no apparent opposition to the amendment.

While the ballot language for Proposition 10 says that the proposed constitutional amendment would abolish the constitutional authority for the office of inspector of hides and animals, it only would remove certain constitutional references to this obsolete office. To actually abolish the office and prevent candidates from filing for election to this post that has almost no remaining duties, the Legislature also would have to delete all remaining statutory references to the office, which it failed to do during the 2007 regular session.