By Giddings                                           H.B. No. 2964
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to the financing of sports facilities in certain
    1-3  municipalities.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Chapter 151 of the Tax Code is amended by adding
    1-6  Section 151.432 to read as follows:
    1-7        Sec. 151.432.  REBATE OF SALES TAX FOR CERTAIN SPORTS
    1-8  FACILITIES.  (a)  A municipality, which has a population of not
    1-9  less than one million and that is located in a county that is
   1-10  adjacent to a county with a population of not less than 500,000,
   1-11  that begins after January 1, 1995 the construction of a sports
   1-12  facility that is the home or is intended to be the home of a
   1-13  professional sports team may apply for and shall be granted a
   1-14  rebate of all sales tax on all sales on the site of the sports
   1-15  facility and on all admissions to an event at the sports facility
   1-16  regardless of the point of sale.  The sports facility or the land
   1-17  underlying the facility must be owned wholly or in substantial part
   1-18  or be financed in whole or in substantial part by the municipality
   1-19  applying for the rebate.
   1-20        (b)  A municipality shall use the revenue derived from the
   1-21  rebate of the sales tax allowed in subsection (a) for the
   1-22  construction of the sports facility or for the payment of bonds
   1-23  that are issued by the municipality to finance the construction of
    2-1  the sports facility.
    2-2        (c)  The municipality may apply for and be granted a rebate
    2-3  for sales occurring up to December 31 of tenth year following the
    2-4  year that the construction of the sports facility is completed.
    2-5        SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
    2-6  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
    2-7  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
    2-8  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
    2-9  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.