73R6605 JD-F
          By Brady                                              H.B. No. 2393
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to the exemption from ad valorem taxation of property
    1-3  owned by certain charitable organizations.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Section 11.18(d), Tax Code, is amended to read as
    1-6  follows:
    1-7        (d)  A charitable organization must be organized exclusively
    1-8  to perform religious, charitable, scientific, literary, or
    1-9  educational purposes and, except as permitted by Subsection (h) of
   1-10  this section, engage exclusively in performing one or more of the
   1-11  following charitable functions:
   1-12              (1)  providing medical care without regard to the
   1-13  beneficiaries' ability to pay;
   1-14              (2)  providing support or relief to orphans,
   1-15  delinquent, dependent, or handicapped children in need of
   1-16  residential care, abused or battered spouses or children in need of
   1-17  temporary shelter, the impoverished, or victims of natural disaster
   1-18  without regard to the beneficiaries' ability to pay;
   1-19              (3)  providing support to elderly persons or the
   1-20  handicapped without regard to the beneficiaries' ability to pay;
   1-21              (4)  preserving a historical landmark or site;
   1-22              (5)  promoting or operating a museum, zoo, library,
   1-23  theater of the dramatic or performing arts, or symphony orchestra
   1-24  or choir;
    2-1              (6)  promoting or providing humane treatment of
    2-2  animals;
    2-3              (7)  acquiring, storing, transporting, selling, or
    2-4  distributing water for public use;
    2-5              (8)  answering fire alarms and extinguishing fires with
    2-6  no compensation or only nominal compensation to the members of the
    2-7  organization;
    2-8              (9)  promoting the athletic development of boys or
    2-9  girls under the age of 18 years;
   2-10              (10)  preserving or conserving wildlife;
   2-11              (11)  promoting educational development through loans
   2-12  or scholarships to students;
   2-13              (12)  providing halfway house services pursuant to a
   2-14  certification as a halfway house by the Board of Pardons and
   2-15  Paroles;
   2-16              (13)  providing permanent housing and related social,
   2-17  health care, and educational facilities for persons who are 62
   2-18  years of age or older without regard to the residents' ability to
   2-19  pay;
   2-20              (14)  promoting or operating an art gallery, museum, or
   2-21  collection, in a permanent location or on tour, that is open to the
   2-22  public;
   2-23              (15)  providing for the organized solicitation and
   2-24  collection for distributions through gifts, grants, and agreements
   2-25  to nonprofit charitable, education, religious, and youth
   2-26  organizations that provide direct human, health, and welfare
   2-27  services;
    3-1              (16)  performing biomedical or scientific research or
    3-2  biomedical or scientific education for the benefit of the public;
    3-3  or
    3-4              (17)  operating a television station that produces or
    3-5  broadcasts educational, cultural, or other public interest
    3-6  programming and that receives grants from the Corporation for
    3-7  Public Broadcasting under 47 U.S.C. Section 396.
    3-8        SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect January 1, 1994.
    3-9        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
   3-10  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   3-11  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   3-12  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   3-13  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.