LEGISLATIVE BUDGET BOARD Austin, Texas FISCAL NOTE, 77th Regular Session March 27, 2001 TO: Honorable Rene Oliveira, Chair, House Committee on Ways & Means FROM: John Keel, Director, Legislative Budget Board IN RE: HB2076 by Flores (Relating to an exemption from ad valorem taxation for travel trailers.), As Introduced ************************************************************************** * No significant fiscal implication to the State is anticipated. * ************************************************************************** This bill would amend Section 11.14 of the Tax Code to exempt, as non income producing personal property, travel trailers. A "travel trailer" would be defined as a house trailer-type vehicle or a camper trailer, regardless of whether the vehicle was affixed to real property. The trailer would have to be less than eight feet in width or 40 feet in length and designed primarily for use as a temporary living quarters in connection with recreational, camping, travel, or seasonal use and not as a permanent dwelling. The term "manufactured home" would not include a travel trailer. Because the state is constitutionally prohibited from imposing a state property tax, there would be no direct fiscal impact on the state; however, Section 403.302 of the Government Code requires the Comptroller to conduct a property value study to determine the total taxable value for each school district. Total taxable value is an element in the state's school funding formula. Passage of the bill, in concert with the adoption of a constitutional amendment authorizing the legislature to exempt travel trailers, will cause a reduction in school district taxable values reported to the Commissioner of Education by the Comptroller. Texas Department of Transportation records, dated January 23, 2001, indicate that as of that date there were 161,746 travel trailers registered in the state of Texas. Further, a recent article in the "Valley Morning State" reported that, "In Hidalgo County, travel trailers bring in about $1.4 million in tax revenue. School districts are the largest taxing entity in the county." However, though there would be some costs associated with the bill, the fiscal impact on the state and units of local government is not anticipated to be significant, given the limited number of counties that have the bulk of immobile travel trailers on the tax rolls. Local Government Impact No significant fiscal implication to units of local government is anticipated. Source Agencies: 304 Comptroller of Public Accounts LBB Staff: JK, SD, WP, BR