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Senate Bill 449 |
Senate Author: Watson et al. |
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Effective: See below |
House Sponsor: Ritter |
Senate Bill 449 amends the Tax Code to include water stewardship among the agricultural uses, as that term is defined, that qualify agricultural land for a property tax appraisal as qualified open-space land on the basis of the land's productive capacity rather than its market value as determined by other appraisal methods.
The bill requires the Parks and Wildlife Department, with assistance from the comptroller of public accounts, to develop standards for determining whether land qualifies for such appraisal based on water-stewardship use; requires the comptroller by rule to adopt those standards or alternative standards and to distribute those rules to each appraisal district; and sets out certain attributes of land size, use, and other characteristics that the standards must address with respect to the land's eligibility for appraisal as open-space land.
The bill makes land located inside the corporate limits of an incorporated city or town eligible for appraisal as open-space land if it is used for water stewardship, with certain exceptions. The bill excludes land used for water stewardship, along with land used for wildlife management, from a provision that entitles an owner of qualified open-space land on which the Texas Animal Health Commission has established a temporary quarantine for the purpose of regulating the handling of livestock and eradicating ticks or exposure to ticks to a reappraisal of the owner's land for the applicable tax year.
The bill takes effect January 1, 2012, contingent on voter approval of a constitutional amendment proposed by Senate Joint Resolution 16, providing for the appraisal of land devoted to water stewardship as qualified open-space land.