1-1     By:  Armbrister                                       S.B. No. 1118
 1-2           (In the Senate - Filed March 10, 1999; March 11, 1999, read
 1-3     first time and referred to Committee on Intergovernmental
 1-4     Relations; April 23, 1999, reported favorably, as amended, by the
 1-5     following vote:  Yeas 4, Nays 0; April 23, 1999, sent to printer.)
 1-6     COMMITTEE AMENDMENT NO. 1                             By:  Moncrief
 1-7     Amend S.B. No. 1118, SECTION 1, Section 26.05(a), page 1, line 20
 1-8     after the word "before" strike "the 31st day after the date the
 1-9     chief appraiser certifies the appraisal roll to the taxing unit"
1-10     and add "September 1 or within 60 days after the certified
1-11     appraisal roll is received by the taxing unit"
1-12                            A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
1-13                                   AN ACT
1-14     relating to the date by which the governing body of a taxing unit
1-15     must adopt an ad valorem tax rate for that taxing unit.
1-16           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-17           SECTION 1.  Subsections (a) and (c), Section 26.05, Tax Code,
1-18     are amended to read as follows:
1-19           (a)  The [Except as provided by Subsection (c), the]
1-20     governing body of each taxing unit before the 31st day after the
1-21     date the chief appraiser certifies the appraisal roll to the taxing
1-22     unit [September 1 or as soon thereafter as practicable] shall adopt
1-23     a tax rate for the current tax year and shall notify the assessor
1-24     for the unit of the rate adopted.  The tax rate consists of two
1-25     components, each of which must be approved separately.  The
1-26     components are:
1-27                 (1)  the rate that, if applied to the total taxable
1-28     value, will impose the total amount published under Section
1-29     26.04(e)(3)(C) [of this code], less any amount of additional sales
1-30     and use tax revenue that will be used to pay debt service; and
1-31                 (2)  the rate that, if applied to the total taxable
1-32     value, will impose the amount of taxes needed to fund maintenance
1-33     and operation expenditures of the unit for the next year.
1-34           (c)  If the governing body of a taxing unit does not adopt a
1-35     tax rate before the date required by Subsection (a) [appraisal roll
1-36     is delivered to a county after August 22, the county must adopt a
1-37     tax rate not later than the 30th day after the date on which the
1-38     appraisal roll is received.  If a tax rate is not adopted during
1-39     this 30-day period], the tax rate for the taxing unit for that tax
1-40     year is the lower of the effective tax rate calculated for that tax
1-41     year or the tax rate adopted by the taxing unit for the preceding
1-42     tax year.  A tax rate established by this subsection [That rate] is
1-43     treated as an adopted tax rate.  Before the fifth day after [Within
1-44     five days of] the establishment [adoption] of a tax rate by
1-45     [pursuant to] this subsection, the governing body of the taxing
1-46     unit [county] must ratify the applicable [such] tax rate in the
1-47     manner required [as provided] by Subsection (b) [of this section].
1-48           SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect January 1, 2000, and
1-49     applies to the ad valorem tax rate of a taxing unit for a tax year
1-50     that begins on or after that date.
1-51           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
1-52     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
1-53     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
1-54     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
1-55     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.
1-56                                  * * * * *