By Wise                                               H.B. No. 2191
         76R6058 DB-D                           
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to the allocation of tax credits to housing projects in
 1-3     counties with high unemployment and low median family incomes.
 1-4           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-5           SECTION 1.  Section 2306.675, Government Code, is amended by
 1-6     adding Subsections (c) and (d) to read as follows:
 1-7           (c)  The department shall issue commitments for at least 20
 1-8     percent of the annual allocation of low income housing tax credits
 1-9     to eligible housing projects in affected counties.
1-10           (d)  In this section, "affected county" means a county that
1-11     has:
1-12                 (1)  a per capita income that averaged 25 percent below
1-13     the state average for the most recent three consecutive years for
1-14     which statistics are available; and
1-15                 (2)  an unemployment rate that averaged 25 percent
1-16     above the state average for the most recent three consecutive years
1-17     for which statistics are available.
1-18           SECTION 2.  The Department of Housing and Community Affairs
1-19     shall issue at least 20 percent of the balance of the allocation of
1-20     low income housing tax credits for fiscal year 1999 on the
1-21     effective date of this Act to eligible housing projects in affected
1-22     counties, as required by Section 2306.675, Government Code, as
1-23     amended by this Act.
1-24           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
 2-1     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
 2-2     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
 2-3     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
 2-4     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
 2-5     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
 2-6     passage, and it is so enacted.