Texas poised to ask voters to approve $3 billion to study dementia
[April 30, 2025]
By ELEANOR KLIBANOFF/The Texas Tribune
Texas voters will likely get a chance to decide whether to spend $3
billion in state funds on dementia research after the House
preliminarily approved Senate Joint Resolution 3 on Monday.
Both chambers voted earlier this session to create the Dementia
Prevention and Research Institute of Texas, to study dementia,
Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease and other brain conditions.
Modeled after Texas’ cancer institute, the new initiative was a priority
for Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and received bipartisan support from the
majority of lawmakers.
But it’s not up to them whether taxpayer dollars can be used to fund
this project. That decision will lie with the voters, who, after SJR 3
is finally approved by the House, will be asked at the next election
whether they want to allocate $3 billion of general revenue to this
work.
“I don’t know (any one) in this House who doesn’t have a family member
or a friend or a neighbor … impacted by dementia or Alzheimer’s,” said
Rep. Senfronia Thompson, a Houston Democrat. “This Constitutional
Amendment gives us the funding to do the research so that we can give
those persons who are impacted with these dreadful diseases a better
quality of life.”
SJR 3 passed 123-21. Despite the popularity of the bill, the funding
measure’s fate was briefly in question, as Democrats attempted to hold
constitutional amendments hostage over the creation of a school voucher
program.
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 Both chambers have signed off on a
$1 billion private school voucher program, finally breaking through
years of resistance from Democrats and rural Republicans. In a last
ditch effort, Democrats asked that the proposal be put to voters and
vowed to vote against all constitutional amendments until their
request was granted. Since constitutional amendments need a
two-thirds majority to pass, it’s one of the few times Republicans
need Democrats allied to their cause.
The dementia funding measure was one of the constitutional
amendments up for a vote during this so-called blockade, which
forced several pieces of legislation to be postponed. The bill was
punted a few days, but after a clash Friday in which Republicans
aligned to kill uncontroversial Democrat bills, some Democrats
seemed to back off the blockade enough to approve this and other
constitutional amendments.
After lengthy back and forth over the enabling legislation last
week, the funding vote Monday was quick and to the point. Thompson
and Rep. Tom Craddick, a Midland Republican, who both have pushed
for a bill like this for several years, implored their colleagues to
vote for the measure.
“We’re one of the leading states with Alzheimer’s in the country,”
Craddick said. “This could be the way we can solve it … This isn’t a
party vote. This is a vote for the people in the state of Texas.”
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