Elected officials and landowner groups are encouraging voters to participate in the Nov. 3 state constitutional amendment election, as several amendments address eminent domain and appraisal issues.

Proposition 11, which would prohibit the taking of property through eminent domain for private use, has generated strong support from District 54 voters, said State Rep. Jimmie Don Aycock (R-Killeen). Aycock considers the amendment the most important of the 11 on the Nov. 3 ballot.

Proposition 11 is intended to prevent cities from taking private property through eminent domain to attract retail developments or otherwise increase tax revenue, Aycock said.

“I think that’s just wrong,” he said.

If voters approve the amendment, as Aycock expects, a two-thirds vote of both the Texas Senate and Texas House of Representatives would be required to grant eminent domain authority, Aycock said.

“There’s lots of language in the amendment that people don’t necessarily know about,” the legislator said.

The passage of Proposition 11 would benefit all Texas property owners, said Lampasas County Farm Bureau President Mickey Edwards.

Texas Farm Bureau is distributing brochures and posting signs in favor of Proposition 11, he added. “We are definitely campaigning for it,” Edwards said.

Although Edwards said some of the ballot language is vague and a bit confusing, the county Farm Bureau president expects voters to approve the measure.

“I don’t think it will be a problem,” Edwards said.

Propositions 2, 3 and 5 -- which relate to property valuation and appraisal issues -- also are important for voters to consider, Edwards and Aycock said.

Proposition 2, as it reads on ballots, would authorize the Texas Legislature to “provide for the ad valorem taxation of a residence homestead solely on the basis of the property’s value as a residence homestead.”

The amendment would protect homestead owners from having to pay taxes based on the “highest and best use” of their primary residence, Aycock said. Homeowners in an area where a convenience store or other commercial enterprise goes into business, for example, would be taxed based on residential values rather than on “highest and best use” commercial values, he said.

Proposition 2 would benefit those who own property along the proposed route of the U.S. Highway 190 bypass, Edwards said. As he learned while serving on an appraisal review board, highest and best use can inflate tax valuations to levels that make properties difficult to sell, he said.

“It really hurt some of those property owners,” Edwards said. “I think this will address some of those issues that had really gotten out of kilter.”

Because the amendment applies only to a property owner’s homestead, however, rented buildings’ taxable values still could be based on highest and best use, Aycock said.

“We took what we could get,” the state representative said of the proposed amendment.

Proposition 5, which would allow the consolidation of appraisal review boards, probably will not affect Lampasas County or other parts of District 54, Aycock said.

The legislator also mentioned an e-mail campaign that claims Proposition 3 -- “the constitutional amendment providing for uniform standards and procedures for the appraisal of property for ad valorem tax purposes” -- would establish a statewide property tax.

“Nothing could be further from the truth,” Aycock said. “It’s a complete fabrication.”

The Texas Constitution requires that administrative and judicial enforcement of uniform standards for the appraisal of property originate in the county where a tax is imposed. The proposed amendment would give the legislature full discretion to prescribe the manner of the enforcement of uniform appraisal standards and procedures.

Early voting continues through Oct. 30 at the elections administrator office at 412 S. Live Oak St. Polls will be open Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

As of Wednesday morning, 48 of the 12,515 registered voters in Lampasas County had cast a ballot.