By: Madla, et al. S.B. No. 227 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED AN ACT 1-1 relating to a grant for a local area adversely affected by a 1-2 reduction in defense-related activity. 1-3 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS: 1-4 SECTION 1. Subtitle F, Title 4, Government Code, is amended 1-5 by adding Chapter 486 to read as follows: 1-6 CHAPTER 486. ASSISTANCE FOR LOCAL AREA AFFECTED BY 1-7 DEFENSE REDUCTION 1-8 Sec. 486.001. DEFINITIONS. In this chapter: 1-9 (1) "Defense worker" means: 1-10 (A) an employee of the United States Department 1-11 of Defense, including a member of the armed forces and a government 1-12 civilian worker; 1-13 (B) an employee of a government agency or 1-14 private business, or entity providing a department of defense 1-15 related function, who is employed on a defense facility; 1-16 (C) an employee of a business that provides 1-17 direct services or products to the department of defense and whose 1-18 job is directly dependent on defense expenditures; or 1-19 (D) an employee or private contractor employed 1-20 by the United States Department of Energy working on a defense or 1-21 department of energy facility in support of a department of defense 1-22 related project. 1-23 (2) "Defense worker job" means a department of defense 2-1 authorized permanent position or a position held or occupied by one 2-2 or more defense workers for more than 12 months. 2-3 (3) "Department" means the Texas Department of 2-4 Commerce. 2-5 (4) "Panel" means the Defense Economic Adjustment 2-6 Assistance Panel. 2-7 Sec. 486.002. GENERAL POWERS AND DUTIES. (a) The 2-8 department shall administer and monitor the implementation of this 2-9 chapter. 2-10 (b) The department shall establish criteria and procedures 2-11 for evaluations and awarding grants. The department shall award 2-12 grants equitably based on evaluations so as to not 2-13 disproportionally favor one adversely affected defense-dependent 2-14 community over another. 2-15 (c) The department may use an amount equal to not more than 2-16 two percent of the total amount of grants authorized during each 2-17 biennium to administer this chapter and other law relating to 2-18 readjustment of defense-dependent communities. 2-19 (d) The department shall adopt rules necessary to carry out 2-20 the purposes of this chapter. 2-21 Sec. 486.003. ELIGIBILITY FOR GRANT. (a) A local 2-22 governmental entity is eligible for a grant under this chapter if 2-23 it is: 2-24 (1) a municipality or county that is an adversely 2-25 affected defense-dependent community; or 3-1 (2) a regional planning commission that has an 3-2 adversely affected defense-dependent community within its 3-3 boundaries. 3-4 (b) A municipality or county is an adversely affected 3-5 defense-dependent community if the department determines that: 3-6 (1) the municipality or county requires assistance 3-7 because of: 3-8 (A) the proposed or actual establishment, 3-9 realignment, or closure of a defense facility; 3-10 (B) the cancellation or termination of a United 3-11 States Department of Defense contract or the failure of the 3-12 department of defense to proceed with an approved major weapon 3-13 system program; 3-14 (C) a publicly announced planned major reduction 3-15 in department of defense spending that would directly and adversely 3-16 affect the municipality or county; or 3-17 (D) the closure or a significant reduction of 3-18 the operations of a defense facility as the result of a merger, 3-19 acquisition, or consolidation of a defense contractor operating the 3-20 facility; and 3-21 (2) the municipality or county is expected to 3-22 experience, during the period between the beginning of the federal 3-23 fiscal year during which an event described by Subdivision (1) is 3-24 finally approved and the date that the event is to be substantially 3-25 completed, a direct loss of: 4-1 (A) 2,500 or more defense worker jobs in any 4-2 area of the municipality or county that is located in an urbanized 4-3 area of a metropolitan statistical area; 4-4 (B) 1,000 or more defense worker jobs in any 4-5 area of the municipality or county that is not located in an 4-6 urbanized area of a metropolitan statistical area; or 4-7 (C) defense worker jobs representing one percent 4-8 of the jobs in the municipality or county. 4-9 Sec. 486.004. GRANT CRITERIA. (a) From money appropriated 4-10 for this purpose, the department may make a grant to an eligible 4-11 local governmental entity to allow the entity to meet a matching 4-12 money or investment requirement in order to receive from the United 4-13 States assistance that is provided to allow the local governmental 4-14 entity to respond to or recover from an event described by Section 4-15 486.003(b)(1). In addition, a grant may be made to an eligible 4-16 local governmental entity to match the entity's contribution for a 4-17 purpose described in Section 486.005 on a closed or realigned 4-18 defense facility. 4-19 (b) A grant may not be less than $50,000 or more than the 4-20 least of: 4-21 (1) 50 percent of the amount of matching money or 4-22 investment that the local governmental entity is required to 4-23 provide, subject to Subsection (c); 4-24 (2) 50 percent of the local governmental entity's 4-25 investment for purposes described in Section 486.005, in cases 5-1 where United States assistance is not available; or 5-2 (3) $2 million. 5-3 (c) If the local governmental entity demonstrates to the 5-4 department that, because of a limited budget, resources are not 5-5 available to provide 50 percent of the amount of matching money or 5-6 investment that the local governmental entity is required to 5-7 provide, the grant may be not more than 80 percent of the amount of 5-8 that matching money or investment requirement, but may not be more 5-9 than $2 million. 5-10 Sec. 486.005. USE OF PROCEEDS. (a) The local governmental 5-11 entity may use the proceeds of the grant for purchase of property 5-12 from the department of defense or its designated agent, new 5-13 construction, rehabilitation, or renovation of facilities or 5-14 infrastructure, or purchase of capital equipment or insurance. 5-15 (b) The local governmental entity may deliver the money to a 5-16 special district, development corporation, or other instrumentality 5-17 of the state or the local governmental entity for use as provided 5-18 by this chapter and other applicable law. 5-19 Sec. 486.006. DEFENSE ECONOMIC ADJUSTMENT ASSISTANCE PANEL. 5-20 The department shall establish a defense economic adjustment 5-21 assistance panel within the department. The panel consists of at 5-22 least three and not more than five professional full-time employees 5-23 of the department appointed by the executive director of the 5-24 department. 5-25 Sec. 486.007. APPLICATION FOR GRANT. A local governmental 6-1 entity may apply for a grant under this chapter to the department 6-2 on a form prescribed by the department. The department shall 6-3 establish periodic application cycles to enable the panel and 6-4 department to evaluate groups of applicants in relation to each 6-5 other. 6-6 Sec. 486.008. EVALUATION OF APPLICATION. The panel shall 6-7 evaluate each application and assign the applicant a score based 6-8 on: 6-9 (1) the significance of the adverse effect within the 6-10 local governmental entity, including the number of jobs lost in 6-11 relation to the workforce in the local governmental entity's 6-12 jurisdiction and the effect on the area's economy and tax revenue; 6-13 (2) the extent to which the local governmental entity 6-14 has used its existing resources to promote local economic 6-15 development; 6-16 (3) the amount of any grant that the local 6-17 governmental entity has previously received under this chapter; 6-18 (4) the anticipated number of jobs to be created in 6-19 relation to the amount of the grant sought; and 6-20 (5) the extent to which the grant will affect the 6-21 region in which the local governmental entity is located. 6-22 Sec. 486.009. MAKING OF GRANT. The panel shall submit its 6-23 scores to the department's governing body. The governing body 6-24 shall use the scores to determine whether to make a grant to an 6-25 applicant. The governing body may not make a grant unless the 7-1 legislature has appropriated the money for the grant. 7-2 SECTION 2. The importance of this legislation and the 7-3 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an 7-4 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the 7-5 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several 7-6 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended, 7-7 and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its 7-8 passage, and it is so enacted. < By: Madla, et al. S.B. No. 227 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED