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House Bill 3676 |
House Author: Heflin et al. |
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Effective: See below |
Senate Sponsor: Seliger |
House Bill 3676 amends the Tax Code to postpone for three years, to December 31, 2014, the expiration date for provisions of the Texas Economic Development Act relating to school district limitations on appraised value and relating to school tax credits.
Most of House Bill 3676 concerns appraised value limitations granted by school districts for job-creation purposes. The bill, among other provisions, allows application for a limitation not only by a property owner but also by a lessee or a holder of another possessory interest who proposes an investment. It revises the definition of "qualifying job" to include not only those that pay at least 110 percent of the county average weekly wage for manufacturing jobs in a county, as under current law, but also those that pay at least 110 percent of the county average weekly wage for all jobs in a county if an owner creates more than 1,000 jobs in the county. The bill clarifies investment eligibility to include certain property associated with an advanced clean energy project, and extends eligibility to include use of property for a computer center primarily devoted to another type of eligible investment. It amends procedures and requirements for approving an application for a limitation, revises related deadlines, makes changes relating to the confidentiality of business information contained in an application, and adds to the required contents of the economic impact evaluation performed by the comptroller of public accounts, including an evaluation of the projected effect on the Foundation School Program of payments by the state to a school district for each year of the proposed limitation agreement. The bill allows a school district to approve an application that the comptroller has recommended be disapproved only if the district holds a public hearing on the application and recommendation and its governing body by two-thirds vote decides subsequently to approve the application. Besides recommending approval or disapproval of a limitation, as under existing law, the comptroller under the bill has an initial role in determining whether a property meets the eligibility requirements for a limitation. The bill gives an applicant an opportunity for a hearing on such determination, conducted by the State Office of Administrative Hearings (SOAH), and for judicial review. If the comptroller makes a determination of ineligibility and that determination becomes final, the comptroller is not required to produce an economic impact evaluation, and granting of the application by the school district is prohibited. The bill requires the public posting on the comptroller's website of applications, economic impact evaluations, limitation agreements reached between applicants and school districts, and other documents, and requires school districts with websites to include links to the information posted by the comptroller. It allows an agreement to provide that a property owner will protect the school district if the district incurs extraordinary education-related expenses related to a project that are not directly funded in state aid formulas, and allows an agreement to temporarily defer an approved project. The bill prohibits an agreement from including provision for supplemental payments to a district in excess of $100 per student per year in average daily attendance and limits the duration of any such payments. It includes penalty provisions to enable the recapture of lost property tax revenue if a property owner fails to make a required minimum amount of investment or to create a required number of jobs.
House Bill 3676 makes clarifying changes to the law regarding limitations on appraised value of property in rural school districts. Changes to the law regarding school tax credits relate to applicant and school district deadlines and the nonconfidentiality of applications. The bill includes applications requesting school tax credits among the documents the comptroller must post publicly on the Internet. It amends provisions of the Government Code relating to the comptroller's study of school district property values to exclude from related calculations a school district limitation on appraised value, for an application made after May 1, 2009, that the comptroller recommended be disapproved.
Portions of House Bill 3676 relating to information submitted by the district to the comptroller and its posting on the Internet and to eligibility determinations by the comptroller, including SOAH and judicial review provisions, take effect January 1, 2010. The remainder of the bill takes effect June 19, 2009.