By Bivins                                              S.B. No. 101
       74R868 SMH-D
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to the remedies available to a person who has paid an
    1-3  unlawful ad valorem tax.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Chapter 31, Tax Code, is amended by adding
    1-6  Section 31.115 to read as follows:
    1-7        Sec. 31.115.  PAYMENT OF UNLAWFUL TAX.  If the imposition of
    1-8  all or part of ad valorem taxes on all or a class of property is
    1-9  unlawful, a court is not prohibited from ordering a refund to each
   1-10  property owner subject to the tax of the amount of unlawful tax
   1-11  paid by the owner even if the owner did not pay the amount of tax
   1-12  refunded under protest, and payment of the unlawful tax does not
   1-13  deprive the owner of any right or remedy available to an owner who
   1-14  pays the tax under protest.
   1-15        SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
   1-16  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   1-17  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   1-18  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   1-19  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
   1-20  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
   1-21  passage, and it is so enacted.