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Senate Bill 1 (1st C.S.) |
Senate Author: Duncan et al. |
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Effective: See below |
House Sponsor: Pitts |
Senate Bill 1 amends the Alcoholic Beverage Code, Code of Criminal Procedure, Education Code, Election Code, Estates Code, Family Code, Government Code, Health and Safety Code, Human Resources Code, Occupations Code, Probate Code, Tax Code, Transportation Code, and Water Code to enact various changes relating to state fiscal matters.
Article 1 defers the August Foundation School Program (FSP) payments to school districts, beginning in fiscal year 2013, to after September 5 but not later than September 10 of the following fiscal year and specifies an August 25 deadline for the comptroller of public accounts to transfer an estimated amount from the state lottery account to the foundation school fund.
Article 2 establishes that an insurer, health maintenance organization, or title insurance company is not entitled to a tax credit for an examination or evaluation fee paid in calendar year 2012 or 2013. This provision expires January 1, 2014. Effective October 1, 2011, Article 3 repeals Tax Code provisions regarding state sales tax and franchise tax refunds for economic development in reinvestment zones. Article 4 extends the record retention period for tax records to a minimum of four years, or longer in certain cases, and establishes the taxpayer's burden to produce records substantiating taxpayer claims. Article 5 decreases from 18 months to one year the dormancy period for unclaimed utility deposits before they may be presumed abandoned.
Article 6 establishes the judicial and court personnel training fund as an account in the general revenue fund, rather than a fund created in the state treasury, limits the appropriation of money in the fund to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals to the uses authorized under law, and removes requirements for the transfer of unexpended balances to the general revenue fund. Article 7 authorizes the appropriation of process server certification fees collected by the Office of Court Administration to the office for the support of regulatory programs for process servers, guardians, and court reporters. There is no Article 8.
Effective October 1, 2011, Article 9 requires a remittance of certain prepayments of motor fuel taxes in August 2013, allows a subsequent credit for the remitted tax, and delays the allocation of motor fuels taxes to their designated accounts that would occur in July or August 2013 to September 2013. Article 10 requires an additional remittance of prepayments of alcoholic beverage taxes in August 2013. Article 11 reduces the stamping allowance for affixing stamps to cigarette packages. Effective October 1, 2011, Article 12 revises the definition of "sale for resale" for purposes of the limited sales, excise, and use tax. Article 13 requires a taxpayer who pays state sales and use tax to the comptroller by electronic funds transfer and does not prepay as provided by state law to remit an additional prepayment of 25 percent of the amount due in August 2013 and provides an offsetting credit in September 2013. The remittance provisions in Articles 9, 10, and 13 expire September 1, 2015. Effective October 1, 2011, Article 14 imposes, in addition to any other authorized penalties, a $50 penalty for a failure to file or to timely file a required tax report, regardless of whether the person subsequently files the report or whether any taxes or fees were due. Article 14 also repeals Tax Code provisions relating to a repeated failure to file a required sales and use tax report.
Article 15 removes an Election Code provision requiring the secretary of state to deliver written notice of a voter registrar's noncompliance with certain laws and rules to the comptroller; requires the secretary of state, rather than the comptroller, to make the payments to which each registrar is entitled for services rendered; and repeals a provision authorizing the comptroller to require additional proof to substantiate certain information before issuing a warrant. Articles 16 and 17 revise certain powers and duties of the comptroller with respect to the execution of certain depository agreements and the preparation and publication of reports and materials. Article 17 repeals Government Code provisions relating to the collection and availability of information on economic development activities and Local Government Code provisions relating to a report to the comptroller by a municipal development corporation.
Article 18 amends provisions relating to the surplus lines insurance premium tax and the independently procured insurance premium tax, some contingent on the state entering a cooperative agreement, reciprocal agreement, or compact with another state for the collection or allocation of such taxes, and repeals provisions relating to the determination of the amount of taxable premiums on a policy or contract covering risks only partially located in Texas and authorizing the comptroller to establish that all premiums are considered to be on risks located in Texas under certain circumstances or for certain purposes.
Article 19 creates the oil and gas regulation and cleanup fund as an account in the general revenue fund to replace the oil-field cleanup fund, which is abolished, with all balances in the abolished fund and all current revenue streams, except penalties, transferring or accruing, as applicable, to the new fund. The bill requires the Railroad Commission of Texas to establish specific performance goals for oil and gas regulation through the appropriations process and to submit quarterly reports to the Legislative Budget Board on fund revenues and expenditures and progress toward meeting those goals. The bill expands the applicability of the pipeline safety fee and authorizes the commission to use funds other than the oil and gas regulation cleanup fund for regulation and cleanup if appropriated.
Article 20 repeals provisions relating to a contract for printing the legislature's general and special laws and instead requires the secretary of state, as soon as practicable after the closing of each legislative session, to publish and maintain electronically the bills enacted that session. Article 21 authorizes the attorney general to charge a reasonable fee for electronic filing of a document. Effective November 1, 2011, Article 22 authorizes money in the Texas preservation trust fund account to be used for operation expenses of the Texas Historical Commission and repeals provisions relating to the comptroller's management of account assets. Article 23 continues the operation of the Department of Information Resources until September 1, 2013, and clarifies both the scope of the Sunset Advisory Commission's review of the department and the purposes for which certain fee revenues may be appropriated to the department.
Article 24 requires the state bar to credit an attorney employed full-time with the office of the attorney general with meeting the bar's minimum continuing legal education requirements, with the exception of requirements for legal ethics and professional responsibility courses, and requires the office to recognize, prepare, or administer continuing legal education programs for office attorneys. These provisions expire January 1, 2014.
Article 25 increases lobby registration fees and registration renewal fees by 50 percent and adds lobbyists for 501(c)(6) organizations to the new $150 fee category. Article 26 expands the authorized uses for money in the fund for veterans' assistance to include the analysis and investigation of data received from the federal Public Assistance Reporting Information System.
Article 27 eliminates a previous authorization for the Commission on State Emergency Communications to vote to designate a seventh regional or satellite poison control center in Harris County and instead authorizes the commission to standardize the operations of and implement management controls to improve the efficiency of regional poison control centers.
Article 28 expands the authorized use of three tobacco settlement funds to pay the principal or interest on a bond issued on behalf of the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas. Article 29 restructures the process for disposing of state surplus or salvage property.
Effective January 1, 2012, Article 30 expands the meaning of "seller" or "retailer" and clarifies the circumstances under which a retailer is considered engaged in business in Texas for purposes of provisions governing the collection of the state sales and use tax and provides for the temporary allocation of a portion of state sales tax revenues to the property tax relief fund.
Article 31 extends the potential carryforward period for a corporation's unused franchise tax credits established under former state law for certain job creation activities or for certain capital investments. Article 32 authorizes the comptroller, in providing open market purchasing services for state agency purchases, to engage a consultant to assist with a particular procurement on behalf of a state agency and to pay the consultant from the agency's cost savings.
Article 33 changes the period of the sales and use tax holiday relative to the earliest school start date. Article 34 amends Government Code provisions relating to Legislative Budget Board meetings on the development of state budgets and the publication of related documentation.
Article 35 authorizes the governor, during the state fiscal biennium beginning September 1, 2011, to transfer money from the Texas Enterprise Fund to the Texas Workforce Commission to fund the Texas Back to Work Program established under the bill's provisions. Effective January 1, 2012, Article 36 authorizes an unmarried surviving spouse of a disabled veteran who qualified for a residence homestead property tax exemption on the basis of that disability to pay the taxes due in installments. Article 37 extends the $1 million franchise tax exemption through December 1, 2013. Articles 38, 39, and 40 set out provisions relating to longevity supplements for assistant prosecutors and the reimbursement of process server review board members and of jurors.
Article 41 requires a county with a population of 50,000 or greater to participate in the collection improvement program unless granted a waiver. Article 42 revises the size, composition, and authority of the Correctional Managed Health Care Committee and transfers its authority to enter into certain health care services contracts to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ). Article 43 authorizes the establishment of a homeless housing and services program administered by the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs in certain municipalities and authorizes the governor to transfer funds from the Texas Enterprise Fund to the department to fund the program. Article 44 makes the office of the comptroller, rather than the governor's office, the state agency for uniform grant and contract management.
Effective January 1, 2012, Article 45 requires a qualified live event promotion company and a qualified courier and logistics company to exclude payments made to certain individuals for their services from the company's total revenue for franchise tax purposes. Article 46 adds beekeeping for the purpose of pollination or for the production of human food or other tangible commercial products to the activities that qualify land for appraisal as open-space land, provided that the land used is not less than 5 or more than 20 acres. Article 47 decreases from once a year to once every five years the frequency for the mandatory reporting by certain entities to the comptroller regarding the comptroller's unclaimed property search.
Article 48 amends provisions relating to property taxation of certain stored property, in part to redefine "goods-in-transit" as tangible personal property that is stored under contract of bailment by a public warehouse operator at one or more public warehouse facilities in Texas that are not in any way owned or controlled by the owner of the personal property for the account of the person who acquired or imported the property. The redefinition takes effect January 1, 2012; a provision relating to an official action to tax goods-in-transit takes effect October 1, 2011.
Articles 49 and 50 add to or revise eligibility requirements for payment of an eligible student's advanced placement tests and for a college tuition exemption for an educational aide. Effective January 1, 2012, Article 51 amends Tax Code provisions relating to the franchise tax to redefine "retail trade" to include apparel rental activities classified as Industry 5999 or 7299 of the federal 1987 Standard Industrial Classification Manual.
Article 52 authorizes certain school districts to retain additional state aid received under certain conditions as a hold harmless for a tax rate reduction resulting from a compression of tax rates, and Article 53 requires a reduction in a school district's additional state aid under that hold harmless in proportion to the degree to which its adopted maintenance and operations (M&O) tax rate is below its compressed tax rate, beginning with tax rates adopted for the 2009 tax year.
Article 54 reduces the membership of the Texas Guaranteed Student Loan Corporation's board, in part by removing the comptroller as an ex officio member, and requires the governor to designate the board's chair. Article 55 amends provisions relating to the disposition of mineral proceeds in funds established for The Texas A&M University System, the Texas State University System, the Texas Tech University System, and Texas A&M University--Kingsville. Article 56 requires the commissioner of education to reduce the amounts of the reduction of certain school districts' entitlement amounts computed for purposes of adjusting entitlement amounts to account for taxes deposited into a tax increment fund. This requirement expires September 1, 2013.
Article 57 amends provisions relating to public school finance. Among other changes, the bill allows a district not receiving a transportation allotment or participating in a county transportation system to charge a reasonable fee for transportation services; revises a charter holder's entitlement to FSP funding for an open-enrollment charter school; revises the formula for computing the minimum monthly salary of certain school district staff; increases the equalized wealth level to $339,500 and the guaranteed yield to $33.95 for districts with an M&O tax rate for the 2010 tax year at the maximum allowable tax rate; establishes a regular program allotment as a replacement for the adjusted basic allotment, with a temporary regular program adjustment factor (RPAF) to provide certain across-the-board reductions in school district funding; authorizes the use of compensatory education funds for juvenile justice alternative education programs (JJAEPs) and removes certain limitations on the expenditure of such funds on district alternative education programs; requires the State Board of Education to increase indirect cost allotments in effect for the 2010-2011 school year in proportion to the RPAF reductions; and incrementally reduces the amount of a district's hold harmless for the loss of local tax revenue resulting from the reduction in school district property tax rates. The bill requires the establishment of a joint legislative committee to review public school finance and expresses the intent that future legislatures continue reducing hold harmless levels while increasing the basic allotment. The bill repeals, among other provisions, the $350 per pupil cap on annual revenue increases and, effective September 1, 2017, target revenue. Certain school finance provisions that revert to prior law take effect September 1, 2015; other provisions take effect September 1, 2017. Provisions setting the RPAF at specific levels for the 2011-2012, 2012-2013, 2013-2014, and 2014-2015 school years expire September 1, 2015.
Effective September 1, 2013, Article 58 converts the percentage cap on mixed beverage tax reimbursements from the comptroller to counties and municipalities into a minimum percentage.
Article 59 extends the permanent school fund bond guarantee program to designated charter school districts that meet financial standards adopted by the commissioner, including earning investment grade status; sets limitations on the guarantee of such bonds; and establishes the charter district bond guarantee reserve fund to pay off a defaulted bond. Effective September 28, 2011, Article 60 requires the Texas Education Agency to use a competitive procurement process to award a contract to an adult education service provider; the article requires the agency to adopt rules not later than August 31, 2012, to administer the use of a such a process.
Article 61 repeals the state virtual school network allotment and instead entitles a school district to funding for a student enrolled in a course through the virtual school network in the same manner as for the student's enrollment in courses provided in a traditional classroom setting, provided that the student successfully completes the electronic course.
Article 62 abolishes the Texas Department of Rural Affairs, creates the Office of Rural Affairs within the Texas Department of Agriculture, and transfers all of the abolished department's appropriations, powers, duties, employees, and performance measures to the new office. The article establishes the Texas Rural Health and Economic Development Advisory Council to review rural policies and allocations of community development block grant funds.
Article 63 extends a court's jurisdiction over a young adult in extended foster care and during a trial independence period, requires the court to hold extended foster care review hearings every six months, and authorizes a court to extend its jurisdiction past the trial independence period if the young adult receives transitional living services from the state. Article 64 changes the allocation of revenue from fees collected by the Texas Commission on Fire Protection for deposit in a special account in general revenue and rededicates certain fees to the account.
Article 65 adds provisions relating to correctional health care, including requirements for inmates to pay an annual $100 health care services fee in lieu of a $3 per-visit copayment and for TDCJ to make over-the-counter medications available through commissary operations and provide those medications at no cost to an indigent inmate. The bill requires TDCJ to develop and implement a training program for corrections medication aides and provides an exemption from end stage renal disease facilities licensing requirements for facilities and hospitals operated on behalf of the state that provide dialysis to individuals receiving services while confined in a facility operated by or under contract with TDCJ.
Articles 66 and 66A revise provisions relating to the transfer of a guardianship from one jurisdiction to another, including requirements for the application, a post-transfer hearing, and a determination of a forum for proceedings. Article 67 sets out powers and duties vested in the comptroller with respect to development of a habitat conservation or candidate conservation plan to promote compliance with federal law protecting endangered and candidate species and to the establishment of a habitat protection fund and a mitigation fee to support the plan.
Article 68 removes the population brackets in a provision relating to the issuance of specialty license plates for eligible golf carts required to be registered by the United States Corps of Engineers in certain counties. Article 69 repeals court costs associated with the offense of failing to secure a child passenger in a motor vehicle. Article 70 exempts a county that meets certain criteria, including having a JJAEP serving fewer than 15 students, from certain JJAEP requirements; requires a school district in such a county to provide educational services to an expelled student; and accounts for such a student in the district's FSP funding formula.
Article 71 directs the Health and Human Services Commission, if it is feasible and cost‑effective, to apply for a waiver from the federal government to better leverage state and local funds and maximize the federal Medicaid matching funds by providing Medicaid benefits to individuals with chronic health conditions who meet certain eligibility requirements. Article 72 requires the Department of Public Safety to designate certain driver's license offices as temporary visitor stations; requires proof of citizenship status for an application for a personal identification certificate or license; establishes expiration dates for licenses and certificates issued to certain noncitizens; and sets fee amounts for various issuances of licenses or certificates issued to non-U.S. citizen applicants.
Article 73 revises provisions relating to the imposition, amount, rate, and allocation of the 9-1-1 equalization surcharge. Article 74 continues the operation of the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs until September 1, 2013, raises from $2 million to $3 million the cap on its allocations of low income housing tax credits in a single application round, and revises its oversight relating to the sale and inspection of installed manufactured housing.
Article 75 authorizes the governor to designate one or more state agencies to administer Texas' allocation of federal funds provided under the community development block grant entitlement program. Article 76 adds to the information required on campaign finance reports filed with the Texas Ethics Commission, increases the threshold amount of political expenditures required to be reported, provides for the dismissal of a complaint based on certain misidentifications of a contributor, and authorizes a candidate to designate a responding agent.
Article 77 prohibits the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality from creating a groundwater conservation district in certain counties before September 1, 2015, but authorizes the charge of an annual fee to study overall groundwater consumption in such counties. There is no Article 78.
Article 79 prohibits the Teacher Retirement System of Texas from considering the salaries of personnel paid from the Education Jobs Fund as being paid from federal funds for purposes of interpreting and implementing law relating to state contributions to the retirement system. Article 79A exempts travel vouchers and supporting documentation of certain peace officers from public disclosure for 18 months following the date of travel. Agencies that pay such vouchers are required to prepare a quarterly report summarizing amounts paid for the vouchers.
Except as otherwise noted, the bill takes effect September 28, 2011.