1-1     By:  Cain                                              S.B. No. 521
 1-2           (In the Senate - Filed February 16, 1999; February 17, 1999,
 1-3     read first time and referred to Committee on Education;
 1-4     March 11, 1999, reported favorably by the following vote:  Yeas 6,
 1-5     Nays 0; March 11, 1999, sent to printer.)
 1-6                            A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-7                                   AN ACT
 1-8     relating to certain functions of the comptroller of public accounts
 1-9     involving ad valorem taxation.
1-10           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-11           SECTION 1.  Subsection (b), Section 403.303, Government Code,
1-12     is amended to read as follows:
1-13           (b)  After receipt of a petition, the comptroller shall
1-14     [notify the commissioner of education of the values specified by
1-15     the school district or property owner and shall] hold a hearing.
1-16     The comptroller has the burden to prove the accuracy of the
1-17     findings.  Until a final decision is made by the comptroller, the
1-18     taxable value of property in the district is determined, with
1-19     respect to property subject to the protest, according to the value
1-20     claimed by the school district or property owner, except that the
1-21     value to be used while a final decision is pending may not be less
1-22     than the appraisal roll value for the year of the study.  If after
1-23     a hearing the comptroller concludes that the findings should be
1-24     changed, the comptroller shall order the appropriate changes and
1-25     shall certify the changes to the commissioner of education.  The
1-26     comptroller shall complete all protest hearings and certify all
1-27     changes as necessary to comply with Chapter 42, Education Code.  A
1-28     hearing conducted under this subsection is not a contested case for
1-29     purposes of Section 2001.003.
1-30           SECTION 2.  The following provisions of the Tax Code are
1-31     repealed:
1-32                 (1)  Subsection (h), Section 23.1241; and
1-33                 (2)  Subsections (c) and (d), Section 23.41.
1-34           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
1-35     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
1-36     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
1-37     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
1-38     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
1-39     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
1-40     passage, and it is so enacted.
1-41                                  * * * * *