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."