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Senate Bill 978 |
Senate Author: West |
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Effective: Vetoed |
House Sponsor: Elkins et al. |
Senate Bill 978 amends the Local Government Code to establish provisions relating to the creation and financing of public improvement districts (PIDs). The bill sets forth the exercise of powers and clarifies that a PID created under the Public Improvement District Assessment Act is not a body politic or corporate separate from the municipality or county that created the district. The bill expands the authorized services of PIDs and makes changes to a district assessment plan, the determination of assessment, the assessment roll, and the levy of assessments. The bill authorizes a municipality that exercises powers under provisions for PIDs to establish a district in the corporate limits of the extraterritorial jurisdiction of the municipality and authorizes the governing body of the municipality to enter into a memorandum of understanding with an institution of higher education under which the municipality leases certain public improvement projects to the institution. The bill authorizes a PID to include both contiguous and noncontiguous tracts of land.
Senate Bill 978 makes changes to PID funding procedures and sources and creates the special assessment public improvement district management policy to authorize a municipality or county to establish standards and preconditions regarding a PID.
Reason Given for Veto: "Senate Bill No. 978 expands the types of projects that may be undertaken by a Public Improvement District (PID) without adequately protecting property owners in the PID from incurring the sole or disproportionate costs of projects that clearly have a general municipal or regional benefit.
"These districts were created to enable their residents to fund improvement projects specifically targeted to their respective districts. However, Senate Bill No. 978 broadens the definition of projects that qualify for PID funding to include those that may not directly benefit the property owners who are subject to paying for them. The bill compounds this problem by both permitting projects located outside the PID district and creating districts with non-contiguous acreage, creating a patchwork system that leaves taxpayers with little hope of determining who is paying for what benefit. Under such a scenario, residents of three physically separate parts of a city could be forced to pay for a project located in the county.
"I am concerned that provisions of this bill threaten to violate Texans’ rights under Article 1, section 17 of the Texas Constitution, which protects property owners from having to pay project assessments that are not to their direct benefit.
"Ultimately, the bill leaves too many unanswered questions about the reach and financial impact of Public Improvement Districts on Texas property owners. I strongly encourage interested parties and their respective legislators to revisit this legislation with an eye toward increasing transparency and setting clearly defined limits on what taxpayers are being asked to fund."