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Senate Bill 1266 |
Senate Author: Brimer et al. |
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Effective: 9-1-07 |
House Sponsor: Krusee |
Senate Bill 1266 amends Transportation Code provisions relating to an agreement between the Texas Department of Transportation and a public or private entity that provides for the payment of pass-through tolls to the entity as reimbursement for the construction, maintenance, or operation of a toll or nontoll facility on the state highway system. The bill provides that until September 1, 2009, the amount the department agrees to pay under these agreements in any state fiscal year that begins on or after September 1, 2007, may not be less than the yearly average of such amounts from the date of the creation of the pass-through toll program unless there is an insufficient number of approved proposals for projects to be developed under a pass-through toll agreement. The bill authorizes the department to use any available funds to make a pass-through toll payment except funds derived from the issuance of bonds secured by the Texas mobility fund. It authorizes the governing body of a municipality or county that intends to enter into a pass-through toll agreement with the department to designate an area as a transportation reinvestment zone to finance a pass-through toll project that cultivates development or redevelopment of the area. The bill requires a municipality to deposit a certain amount of revenue from taxes collected on property in the zone into a tax increment account to finance or to repay amounts owed on a project. The bill authorizes a county to abate a certain amount of taxes imposed on property in the zone and to form a road utility district with the same boundaries as the zone, if authorized to do so by the Texas Transportation Commission, to impose taxes on the property in an amount equal to the amount of the abated property taxes. Both sets of provisions establish certain procedural requirements for designation of an area as a transportation reinvestment zone and provide that a zone or tax abatement agreement terminates on December 31 of the year in which the municipality or county completes the contractual requirements in connection with a pass-through toll agreement. A transportation reinvestment zone created by either entity terminates on December 31 of the 10th year after the year the zone was designated if before that date it is not used for its designated purpose.