BILL ANALYSIS

 

 

 

S.B. 2091

By: West

Ways & Means

Committee Report (Unamended)

 

 

 

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

 

Current law provides a process for the public sale by a taxing unit of seized or foreclosed property. However, there is not currently a process in place for an abutting property owner to purchase such real property that is landlocked, that cannot be used independently under its current zoning classification or development ordinances because of its shape or size, or that is located in a floodway or an area designated as having an annual chance of flooding. S.B. 2091 seeks to address this issue by providing for the sale of such property that is seized under a tax warrant or ordered sold pursuant to foreclosure of a tax lien to an eligible owner of abutting property at a private sale at a price lower than is required for the sale of such property by public sale.

 

CRIMINAL JUSTICE IMPACT

 

It is the committee's opinion that this bill does not expressly create a criminal offense, increase the punishment for an existing criminal offense or category of offenses, or change the eligibility of a person for community supervision, parole, or mandatory supervision.

 

RULEMAKING AUTHORITY

 

It is the committee's opinion that this bill does not expressly grant any additional rulemaking authority to a state officer, department, agency, or institution.

 

ANALYSIS

 

S.B. 2091 amends the Tax Code to authorize a taxing unit that requested a tax warrant or order of sale for certain real property to direct the officer charged with selling the property to sell the property to an owner of abutting property at a private sale and to establish that the taxing unit is not required to offer the real property for sale to the public. The bill applies to real property that is seized under a tax warrant or is ordered sold pursuant to foreclosure of a tax lien and that meets one of the following criteria:

·         it is a narrow strip of land or other parcel of land that because of its shape or small area cannot be used independently under its current zoning classification or under applicable subdivision or other development ordinances;

·         it is landlocked without direct access to a public road;

·         it is located in an area designated by FEMA under the federal National Flood Insurance Act of 1968 as having a .02 percent or greater annual chance of flooding; or

·         it is located in a floodway, defined by the bill as an area that is identified on the flood insurance rate map as a regulatory floodway, including the channel of a river or other watercourse and the adjacent land areas that must be reserved for the discharge of a base flood, also referred to as a 100-year flood, without cumulatively increasing the water surface elevation more than a designated height.

The bill defines "flood insurance rate map" as the most recent flood hazard map published by FEMA under the federal National Flood Insurance Act of 1968.

 

S.B. 2091 applies certain statutory provisions regarding the sale of real property that is seized under a tax warrant or ordered sold pursuant to foreclosure of a tax lien to real property meeting those criteria specified by the bill. The bill authorizes a taxing unit that directs the sale of real property under the bill to sell the property for an amount less than the amount required under those statutory provisions and establishes that this bill provision does not authorize a sale of property in violation of Texas Constitution provisions relating to restrictions on political corporations or political subdivisions lending credit or making grants. The bill authorizes a taxing unit that requested a tax warrant or order of sale for real property under the bill to sell the property without the consent of any taxing unit entitled to receive proceeds of the sale. The bill requires a purchaser of real property under the bill's provisions to meet the requirements prescribed in statutory provisions regarding the persons who are eligible to purchase real property pursuant to a tax sale.

 

S.B. 2091 makes a petition initiating a suit to collect a delinquent property tax filed on or after the bill's effective date sufficient if it alleges that the taxing unit is entitled to recover each penalty that is incurred and all interest that accrues on delinquent taxes imposed on the real property from the date of the judgment to the date of the sale under the bill's provisions, if the suit seeks to foreclose a tax lien. The bill applies statutory provisions relating to the distribution of tax sale proceeds to a tax sale under the bill's provisions in the same manner as those provisions apply to a tax sale of real property seized under a tax warrant or ordered sold pursuant to foreclosure of a tax lien.

 

EFFECTIVE DATE

 

September 1, 2023.