By:  Ratliff                                          S.J.R. No. 30
       73R4315 LJD-D
                                  A JOINT RESOLUTION
    1-1  proposing a constitutional amendment allowing the voluntary
    1-2  designation of less than 200 acres as a rural homestead.
    1-3        BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-4        SECTION 1.  Article XVI, Section 51, of the Texas
    1-5  Constitution is amended to read as follows:
    1-6        Sec. 51.  (a)  Except as provided by Subsection (b) of this
    1-7  section, the <The> homestead, not in a town or city, shall consist
    1-8  of not more than two hundred acres of land, which may be in one or
    1-9  more parcels, with the improvements thereon; the homestead in a
   1-10  city, town, or village, shall consist of lot or lots amounting to
   1-11  not more than one acre of land, together with any improvements on
   1-12  the land; provided, that the same shall be used for the purposes of
   1-13  a home, or as a place to exercise the calling or business of the
   1-14  homestead claimant, whether a single adult person, or the head of a
   1-15  family; provided also, that any temporary renting of the homestead
   1-16  shall not change the character of the same, when no other homestead
   1-17  has been acquired.
   1-18        (b)  The legislature by law may provide for the owner of less
   1-19  than two hundred acres of land, not in a town or city, to
   1-20  voluntarily designate a portion of that land as a rural homestead,
   1-21  waiving homestead rights to which the owner is otherwise entitled
   1-22  in property excluded from the designation.
   1-23        SECTION 2.  This proposed constitutional amendment shall be
   1-24  submitted to the voters at an election to be held on November 2,
    2-1  1993.  The ballot shall be printed to provide for voting for or
    2-2  against the proposition:  "The constitutional amendment allowing
    2-3  the voluntary designation of less than 200 acres as a rural
    2-4  homestead."