By:  Moncrief                                          S.B. No. 292
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
                                        AN ACT
    1-1  relating to an absence from a residence as it relates to the
    1-2  homestead exemption.
    1-3        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-4        SECTION 1.  Subsection (l), Section 11.13, Property Tax Code,
    1-5  is amended to read as follows:
    1-6        (l) (1)  A qualified residential structure does not lose its
    1-7  character as a residence homestead when the owner who qualifies for
    1-8  the exemption temporarily stops occupying it as a principal
    1-9  residence if that owner does not establish a different principal
   1-10  residence and intends to return and occupy the structure as his
   1-11  principal residence.
   1-12              (2)  A qualified residential structure does lose its
   1-13  character as a residence homestead when the owner who qualifies for
   1-14  the exemption stops occupying  the structure as his principal
   1-15  residence for a continuous period of two years or more.  A property
   1-16  owner who is under the medical care of a nursing home or of family
   1-17  members or who is absent due to active military service may remain
   1-18  absent from the structure indefinitely without losing the exemption
   1-19  on the property.
   1-20              (3)  The governing body of a taxing unit may petition
   1-21  the assessor and collector for the taxing unit to examine whether a
   1-22  qualified residential structure should lose its character as a
   1-23  residence homestead when a property owner stops occupying the
    2-1  structure as his principal residence for a continuous period of two
    2-2  years or more.
    2-3        SECTION 2.  (a)  This Act takes effect September 1, 1995.
    2-4        (b)  The change in law made by this Act applies only to a
    2-5  homestead exemption claimed on or after that date.  Periods in
    2-6  which a property owner did not occupy the residential structure for
    2-7  which the exemption is claimed as his principal residence prior to
    2-8  the effective date of this Act shall not be considered in
    2-9  determining the character of the structure as a residence homestead
   2-10  under Subdivision (2), Subsection (l), Section 11.13, Tax Code, as
   2-11  added by this Act.
   2-12        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
   2-13  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   2-14  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   2-15  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   2-16  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.