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House Bill 1900 |
House Author: Goldman et al. |
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Effective: 9-1-21 |
Senate Sponsor: Huffman et al. |
House Bill 1900 amends the Government Code, Local Government Code, Tax Code, and Utilities Code to provide for the classification by the criminal justice division of the governor's office of a municipality with a population of more than 250,000 that adopts a budget that reduces appropriations to its police department year‑over‑year as a defunding municipality until the funding reductions are reversed, adjusted for inflation. The bill includes certain exceptions under which a reduction in funding to a municipal police department does not constitute defunding the department, including a process by which a municipality can apply to and receive approval from the division to reduce funding to its police department.
In addition to placing restrictions on a defunding municipality's power to annex an area, House Bill 1900 requires a defunding municipality to hold an election in each area annexed by the municipality in the preceding 30 years and to disannex any area that votes in favor of disannexation. The bill prohibits a defunding municipality from adopting a property tax rate that exceeds the lesser of its current no‑new‑revenue tax rate or voter‑approval tax rate and provides for a downward adjustment in the municipality's no‑new‑revenue maintenance and operations tax rate to account for its reduction in public safety expenditures. The bill provides for a defunding municipality's share of municipal sales and use tax revenue to be reduced to cover state expenditures to provide law enforcement services in the municipality. The bill establishes minimum retirement funding requirements for a defunding municipality and restricts a defunding municipality's authority to increase rates and fees charged by its municipally owned utility, if applicable.