By Armbrister                                         S.B. No. 1118
         76R6837 JD-F                           
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to the date by which the governing body of a taxing unit
 1-3     must adopt an ad valorem tax rate for that taxing unit.
 1-4           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-5           SECTION 1.  Sections 26.05(a) and (c), Tax Code, are amended
 1-6     to read as follows:
 1-7           (a)  The [Except as provided by Subsection (c), the]
 1-8     governing body of each taxing unit before the 31st day after the
 1-9     date the chief appraiser certifies the appraisal roll to the taxing
1-10     unit [September 1 or as soon thereafter as practicable] shall adopt
1-11     a tax rate for the current tax year and shall notify the assessor
1-12     for the unit of the rate adopted.  The tax rate consists of two
1-13     components, each of which must be approved separately.  The
1-14     components are:
1-15                 (1)  the rate that, if applied to the total taxable
1-16     value, will impose the total amount published under Section
1-17     26.04(e)(3)(C) [of this code], less any amount of additional sales
1-18     and use tax revenue that will be used to pay debt service; and
1-19                 (2)  the rate that, if applied to the total taxable
1-20     value, will impose the amount of taxes needed to fund maintenance
1-21     and operation expenditures of the unit for the next year.
1-22           (c)  If the governing body of a taxing unit does not adopt a
1-23     tax rate before the date required by Subsection (a) [appraisal roll
1-24     is delivered to a county after August 22, the county must adopt a
 2-1     tax rate not later than the 30th day after the date on which the
 2-2     appraisal roll is received.  If a tax rate is not adopted during
 2-3     this 30-day period], the tax rate for the taxing unit for that tax
 2-4     year is the lower of the effective tax rate calculated for that tax
 2-5     year or the tax rate adopted by the taxing unit for the preceding
 2-6     tax year.  A tax rate established by this subsection [That rate] is
 2-7     treated as an adopted tax rate.  Before the fifth day after [Within
 2-8     five days of] the establishment [adoption] of a tax rate by
 2-9     [pursuant to] this subsection, the governing body of the taxing
2-10     unit [county] must ratify the applicable [such] tax rate in the
2-11     manner required [as provided] by Subsection (b) [of this section].
2-12           SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect January 1, 2000, and
2-13     applies to the ad valorem tax rate of a taxing unit for a tax year
2-14     that begins on or after that date.
2-15           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
2-16     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
2-17     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
2-18     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
2-19     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.