(Austin, TX) — Texans will be able to vote on the matter of a state income tax on next month’s ballot.

Under existing state law, any such tax could only be used to pay for education and to offset property taxes.  Proposition 4 would replace those conditions with a simple ban on the levying of a state income tax at all.  It would then take a state constitutional amendment to enact an income tax in Texas.

State Senator Paul Bettencourt, a Houston Republican who co-authored Prop 4, reminds voters that a vote for the measure is a vote against an income tax.