1-1     By:  Truan                                            S.B. No. 1506
 1-2           (In the Senate - Filed March 12, 1999; March 15, 1999, read
 1-3     first time and referred to Committee on Intergovernmental
 1-4     Relations; April 8, 1999, reported favorably by the following vote:
 1-5     Yeas 5, Nays 0; April 8, 1999, sent to printer.)
 1-6                            A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-7                                   AN ACT
 1-8     relating to the allocation of tax credits to housing projects in
 1-9     counties with high unemployment and low median family incomes.
1-10           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-11           SECTION 1.  Section 2306.675, Government Code, is amended by
1-12     adding Subsections (c) and (d) to read as follows:
1-13           (c)  The department shall issue commitments for at least 20
1-14     percent of the annual allocation of low income housing tax credits
1-15     to eligible housing projects in affected counties.
1-16           (d)  In this section, "affected county" means a county that
1-17     has:
1-18                 (1)  a per capita income that averaged 25 percent below
1-19     the state average for the most recent three consecutive years for
1-20     which statistics are available; and
1-21                 (2)  an unemployment rate that averaged 25 percent
1-22     above the state average for the most recent three consecutive years
1-23     for which statistics are available.
1-24           SECTION 2.  The Texas Department of Housing and Community
1-25     Affairs shall issue at least 20 percent of the balance of the
1-26     allocation of low income housing tax credits for fiscal year 1999
1-27     on the effective date of this Act to eligible housing projects in
1-28     affected counties, as required by Section 2306.675, Government
1-29     Code, as amended by this Act.
1-30           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
1-31     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
1-32     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
1-33     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
1-34     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
1-35     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
1-36     passage, and it is so enacted.
1-37                                  * * * * *