"Citizens who vote are those who care the most, and are the most informed. These voters have at least three major advantages over legislators: 1) Legislators vote on thousands of issues, while citizens vote on ten or twenty. 2) Legislators vote during 140 frenzied days of session, while citizens can reflect leisurely over many months. 3) Legislators are impacted by $90 million of special interests firepower each session ($490,000/legislator), while citizens are impacted far less (maybe $15/citizen). Summing up, citizens have far more reflective time to decide far fewer issues under far less special interest influence." Allison Castle of Austin, Texas

Texans enjoy the right of Initiative
for local issues in 263 Texas cities.

(The Texas cities listed below have posted their charters on the Internet)

• City of Allen -- Initiative is Article IX
• City of Arlington -- Citizens have NO Initiative rights
• City of Austin -- Initiative is Article IV
• City of Big Spring -- Citizens have NO Initiative rights
• City of Brownsville -- Citizens have NO Initiative rights
• City of Bryan
• City of Colleyville
• City of Corpus Christi
• City of Eagle Pass
• City of El Paso -- Initiative is Charter Article III, Section 3.11
• City of Fort Worth
• City of Friendswood
• City of Garland
• Haltom City
• City of Houston Civil Rights Initiative -- by Marc Levin
• City of Houston
• City of Lewisville
• City of Lubbock -- Initiative is Article IV
• City of McAllen -- Citizens have NO Initiative rights
• City of McKinney
• City of Mesquite
• City of North Richland Hills -- Citizens have NO Initiative rights
• City of Rosenberg
• City of San Antonio -- Initiative is Article IV
• City of San Marcos
• City of Sugar Land
• City of Victoria
• City of Waco

In the year 2000, this page was able to provide citizens with internet links to  City Charters for the following Texas cites: Baytown, Bedford, Copperas Cove, Forest Hill, Grand Prairie, Hereford, Hurst, Irving, Pampa, Pasadena, Seabrook, South Lake, Vidor and Webster.  These links no longer work.