LEGISLATIVE BUDGET BOARD
                                   Austin, Texas
         
                                   FISCAL NOTE
                               75th Regular Session
         
                                  February 18, 1997
         
         
      TO: Honorable Tom Craddick, Chair            IN RE:  House Bill No. 829
          Committee on Ways & Means                              By: Alexander/et al.
          House
          Austin, Texas
         
         
         
         
         FROM:  John Keel, Director    
         
In response to your request for a Fiscal Note on HB829 ( Relating 
to the appraisal for ad valorem tax purposes of land used for 
wildlife management.) this office has detemined the following:
         
         Biennial Net Impact to General Revenue Funds by HB829-
         
No fiscal implication to the State is anticipated.
         

         
 
FISCAL ANALYSIS
The bill would amend Sections 23.51 (7), 23.52, 
and 23.56 of the Tax Code to allow owners of timberland qualified 
for productivity appraisal to convert their land to qualified 
wildlife management use in the same manner as owners of qualified 
agricultural land.  The bill would require the appraisal of 
qualified wildlife management land at the value of the category 
of land it qualified under before the wildlife management use 
began.

The bill would allow wildlife management land within 
a city to qualify for special appraisal if the land were devoted 
principally to wildlife management use and had been devoted 
principally in each of the preceding five years to wildlife 
management use or to the production of timber or forest products. 
 

METHODOLOGY
Wildlife management use is a revenue-neutral 
use of the land, meaning that the owner who switches from agricultural 
or timberland use to wildlife management use should pay the 
same amount of property taxes that would have been paid if the 
land had remained in its former use.
          
LOCAL
No fiscal implication to units of local government is 
anticipated.
          
   Source:            Agencies:   304   Comptroller of Public Accounts
                                         
                      LBB Staff:   JK ,RR ,BR