By Goodman H.J.R. No. 36
76R3099 JMM-F
A JOINT RESOLUTION
1-1 proposing a constitutional amendment permitting the conversion of
1-2 separate property to community property.
1-3 BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-4 SECTION 1. Section 15, Article XVI, Texas Constitution, is
1-5 amended to read as follows:
1-6 Sec. 15. All property, both real and personal, of a spouse
1-7 owned or claimed before marriage, and that acquired afterward by
1-8 gift, devise or descent, shall be the separate property of that
1-9 spouse; and laws shall be passed more clearly defining the rights
1-10 of the spouses, in relation to separate and community property;
1-11 provided that persons about to marry and spouses, without the
1-12 intention to defraud pre-existing creditors, may by written
1-13 instrument from time to time partition between themselves all or
1-14 part of their property, then existing or to be acquired, or
1-15 exchange between themselves the community interest of one spouse or
1-16 future spouse in any property for the community interest of the
1-17 other spouse or future spouse in other community property then
1-18 existing or to be acquired, whereupon the portion or interest set
1-19 aside to each spouse shall be and constitute a part of the separate
1-20 property and estate of such spouse or future spouse; spouses also
1-21 may from time to time, by written instrument, agree between
1-22 themselves that the income or property from all or part of the
1-23 separate property then owned or which thereafter might be acquired
1-24 by only one of them, shall be the separate property of that spouse;
2-1 if one spouse makes a gift of property to the other that gift is
2-2 presumed to include all the income or property which might arise
2-3 from that gift of property; [and] spouses may agree in writing that
2-4 all or part of their community property becomes the property of the
2-5 surviving spouse on the death of a spouse; and spouses may agree in
2-6 writing that all or part of the separate property owned by either
2-7 or both of them shall be the spouses' community property.
2-8 SECTION 2. This proposed constitutional amendment shall be
2-9 submitted to the voters at an election to be held November 2, 1999.
2-10 The ballot proposition shall be printed to provide for voting for
2-11 or against the proposition: "The constitutional amendment
2-12 permitting spouses to agree to convert separate property to
2-13 community property."