Enrolled Bill Summary

Senate Bill 801	Senate Author:  Hegar et al.
Effective:  1-1-10	House Sponsor:  Homer

            Existing law authorizes the open-space appraisal of land, based on its use for wildlife management, if the land was already subject to open-space appraisal, based on some other qualifying use, when the wildlife management began. Senate Bill 801 amends the Tax Code to authorize the open-space appraisal of land, based on its use for wildlife management, if, when the wildlife management use began, the land was subject to timber land appraisal. Previous law did not allow direct conversion from timber land appraisal to open-space appraisal based on wildlife management use, but rather required the intermediate step of first converting it to open‑space appraisal based on a non-wildlife use. The bill allows such direct conversion, provided that the land meets the requisite criteria. It makes clarifying and conforming changes to associated code provisions.