By Moreno of Harris                                   H.B. No. 2766
         76R6883 GJH-F                           
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to the powers of municipalities that have created certain
 1-3     reinvestment zones.
 1-4           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-5           SECTION 1.  Section 311.008, Tax Code, is amended to read as
 1-6     follows:
 1-7           Sec. 311.008.  POWERS OF MUNICIPALITY.  (a)  In this section,
 1-8     "educational facility" includes equipment, real property, and other
 1-9     facilities, including a public  school building, that are used or
1-10     intended to be used jointly by the municipality and an independent
1-11     school district.
1-12           (b)  A municipality may exercise any power necessary and
1-13     convenient to carry out this chapter, including the power to:
1-14                 (1)  cause project plans to be prepared, approve and
1-15     implement the plans, and otherwise achieve the purposes of the
1-16     plan;
1-17                 (2)  acquire real property by purchase, condemnation,
1-18     or other means to implement project plans and sell that property on
1-19     the terms and conditions and in the manner it considers advisable;
1-20                 (3)  enter into agreements, including agreements with
1-21     bondholders, determined by the governing body of the municipality
1-22     to be necessary or convenient to implement project plans and
1-23     achieve their purposes, which agreements may include conditions,
1-24     restrictions, or covenants that run with the land or that by other
 2-1     means regulate or restrict the use of land; and
 2-2                 (4)  consistent with the project plan for the zone:
 2-3                       (A)  acquire blighted, deteriorated,
 2-4     deteriorating, undeveloped, or inappropriately developed real
 2-5     property or other property in a blighted area or in a federally
 2-6     assisted new community in the zone for the preservation or
 2-7     restoration of historic sites, beautification or conservation, the
 2-8     provision of public works or public facilities, or other public
 2-9     purposes; [or]
2-10                       (B)  acquire, construct, reconstruct, or install
2-11     public works, facilities, or sites or other public improvements,
2-12     including utilities, streets, street lights, water and sewer
2-13     facilities, pedestrian malls and walkways, parks, flood and
2-14     drainage facilities, [educational facilities,] or parking
2-15     facilities, but not including educational facilities; or
2-16                       (C)  in a reinvestment zone designated on or
2-17     before January 1, 1998, acquire, construct, or reconstruct
2-18     educational facilities.
2-19           (c) [(b)]  The powers authorized by Subsection (b)(2)
2-20     [(a)(2)] prevail over any law or municipal charter to the contrary.
2-21           (d) [(c)]  A municipality may make available to the public on
2-22     request financial information regarding the acquisition by the
2-23     municipality of land in the zone when the municipality acquires the
2-24     land.
2-25           SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
2-26     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
2-27     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
 3-1     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
 3-2     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
 3-3     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
 3-4     passage, and it is so enacted.