By:  Lucio                                             S.B. No. 756
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
                                        AN ACT
    1-1  relating to equalizing valuations for governmental taxing and
    1-2  taking; and declaring an emergency.
    1-3        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-4        SECTION 1.  Subsection (b), Section 23.01, Property Tax Code,
    1-5  is amended to read as follows:
    1-6        (b)  The market value of property shall be determined by the
    1-7  application of generally accepted appraisal techniques, and the
    1-8  same or similar appraisal techniques shall be used in appraising
    1-9  the same or similar kinds of property.  However, each property
   1-10  shall be appraised based upon the individual characteristics that
   1-11  affect the property's market value being the price a willing buyer
   1-12  would pay a willing seller after considering all factors in the
   1-13  marketplace that influence the price of the property, including but
   1-14  not limited to the property's location, its visibility, access to
   1-15  and from the property, and its highest and best use.  A property
   1-16  owner whose land is taken or condemned under Sec. 21, et seq, Texas
   1-17  Property Code, shall be entitled to receive the market value of
   1-18  property taken, or the diminution in the market value of property
   1-19  damaged, through consideration and evaluation of the same
   1-20  characteristics, including the effect of the construction and
   1-21  operation of the entire project for which, in part, the
   1-22  condemnation was instituted, by the use of the same accepted
   1-23  appraisal techniques.
    2-1        SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1995.
    2-2        SECTION 3.  EMERGENCY CLAUSE.  The importance of this
    2-3  legislation and the crowded condition of the calendars in both
    2-4  houses create an emergency and an imperative public necessity that
    2-5  the constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
    2-6  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.