By Place                                              H.B. No. 2908
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  providing for severance of certain possessory interests from the
    1-3  property incumbered by such interests for ad valorem tax assessment
    1-4  purposes.
    1-5        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-6        SECTION 1.  That the Tax Code be amended by adding a Section
    1-7  25.15 to read as follows:
    1-8        Section 25.15.  A leasehold or other possessory interest
    1-9  shall be listed in the name of the owner of the possessory interest
   1-10  if the duration of the interest, including any granted optional
   1-11  duration, extends beyond three years after January 1 of the tax
   1-12  year and if the owner of either the possessory interest or the
   1-13  property incumbered thereby files with the appraisal office before
   1-14  May 1 a written request for separate taxation on a form furnished
   1-15  for that purpose together with proof of the separate ownership and
   1-16  a concise description of the possessory interest and the
   1-17  consideration paid therefore.  After a possessory interest
   1-18  qualifies for taxation separate from the property so incumbered,
   1-19  the qualification remains effective in subsequent tax years and
   1-20  need not be requested again; however, the qualification ceases when
   1-21  ownership of the property incumbered or the possessory interest is
   1-22  transferred or terminated.
   1-23        SECTION 2.  This act takes effect January 1, 1996.
    2-1        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
    2-2  crowded condition of the calendar in both houses create an
    2-3  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
    2-4  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
    2-5  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.