73R1489 JD-D
          By Yost                                               H.B. No. 1270
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to installment payments of ad valorem taxes imposed on the
    1-3  homestead of an elderly person.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Section 31.031(a), Tax Code, is amended to read
    1-6  as follows:
    1-7        (a)  If before the delinquency date an individual who was
    1-8  <is> at least 65 years of age on the preceding January 1 claims the
    1-9  elderly homestead exemption and pays at least one-fourth of a
   1-10  taxing unit's taxes imposed on property that the person owns and
   1-11  occupies as a residence homestead, accompanied by notice to the
   1-12  taxing unit that the person will pay the remaining taxes in
   1-13  installments, the person may pay the remaining taxes without
   1-14  penalty or interest in three equal installments.  The first
   1-15  installment must be paid before April 1, the second installment
   1-16  before June 1, and the third installment before August 1.
   1-17        SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1993.
   1-18        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
   1-19  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   1-20  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   1-21  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   1-22  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.