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78S40971 ESH/JD/YDB-D
By: Grusendorf H.J.R. No. 1
Substitute the following for H.J.R. No. 1:
By: Grusendorf C.S.H.J.R. No. 1
A JOINT RESOLUTION
proposing a constitutional amendment providing for funding public
education, providing for school district property tax rate
limitation and reduction, authorizing a school district ad valorem
tax for educational program enrichment, creating the Texas
education fund, dedicating certain sales and use tax revenue to
funding public education, authorizing the legislature to establish
a five percent limit on annual increases in the appraised value for
ad valorem tax purposes of residence homesteads and other
owner-occupied residential real property, and authorizing the
state to operate video lottery games at racetracks and on Indian
lands.
BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Section 47, Article III, Texas Constitution, is
amended by amending Subsection (a) and adding Subsections (f) and
(g) to read as follows:
(a) The Legislature shall pass laws prohibiting lotteries
and gift enterprises in this State other than those authorized by
Subsections (b), (d), [and] (e), and (f) of this section. This
section does not authorize any entity to operate a casino gaming
operation in this State or a gaming operation substantially similar
to a casino and does not authorize the Legislature to enact a law
allowing the operation of casino gaming.
(f) The Legislature by general law in accordance with this
section may authorize the State to control and operate a video
lottery system under which individuals may play lottery games of
chance on video lottery terminals owned and operated by persons
licensed or otherwise authorized by this State in order to generate
revenue solely to fund public education and the administration of
the video lottery system. The law must:
(1) except as otherwise provided by this section,
require the State to continually monitor the activity of each video
lottery terminal and remotely terminate the operation of a terminal
as necessary to protect the public health, welfare, or safety or the
integrity of the State lottery or to prevent financial loss to the
State;
(2) include a comprehensive registration program to
govern a person that manufactures, distributes, sells, or leases
video lottery terminals for use or play in this State and a process
to approve terminals for use in the video lottery system in
accordance with technical standards established by the State;
(3) provide for a comprehensive licensing program to
govern a person that owns, manages, or maintains video lottery
terminals operated in this State;
(4) allow only the following legal entities to operate
video lottery games on behalf of the State:
(A) a person licensed in this State on May 1,
2004, to conduct wagering on a horse race or greyhound race that
conducted not fewer than 20 days of live racing in 2003 and that
annually conducts at least the same number of live racing days as
the person conducted in 2003 at a location licensed by the person to
conduct a horse race or greyhound race;
(B) the Ysleta del Sur Pueblo and
Alabama-Coushatta Indian tribes, which, under an agreement with
this State in the form prescribed by general law or negotiated by
the governor and ratified by the Legislature, operate the games on
lands held in trust by the United States for such tribes on May 1,
2004, pursuant to the Restoration Acts, 25 U.S.C. Section 731 and 18
U.S.C. Section 1166 et seq., and 25 U.S.C. Section 2701 et seq. and
designated by the tribes for video lottery activity; and
(C) the Kickapoo Traditional Tribe of Texas,
which, under an agreement with this State in the form prescribed by
general law or negotiated by the governor and ratified by the
Legislature, operates the games on lands held in trust by the United
States for the benefit of the tribe on which Class III gaming is
permitted under the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act of 1988 (P.L.
100-497, codified at 18 U.S.C. Section 1166 et seq. and 25 U.S.C.
Section 2701 et seq.) and designated by the tribe for video lottery
activity;
(5) prescribe the method for allocating video lottery
terminals that may be operated by an entity listed under
Subdivision (4) of this subsection, and the method must include
consideration of demographics, public health and safety, and
optimization of State revenue;
(6) allow the State to impose and collect State taxes
on the sale, use, or other consumption of a good or service at a
video lottery facility on tribal land by a person who is not a
member of the Indian tribe operating the facility;
(7) prohibit and impose criminal penalties for the
possession and operation of all electronic and mechanical gaming
devices other than video lottery terminals operated in connection
with the video lottery system or otherwise authorized by this
section;
(8) prohibit the operation or possession of a video
lottery terminal that is not subject to the State's measures for
monitoring and terminating operation of the terminal required by
this subsection and does not generate revenue for the State, except
that the law may provide for limited storage of video lottery
terminals as authorized and supervised by the State and for
possession of video lottery terminals by the State for testing and
evaluation; and
(9) provide that:
(A) net revenue generated from video lottery
terminals located at a racetrack shall be distributed as follows:
(i) 40 percent to the racetrack; and
(ii) 60 percent to the State; and
(B) net revenue generated from video lottery
terminals operated by an Indian tribe on Indian lands shall be
distributed as set forth in the agreement authorizing the tribe to
operate video lottery games, provided that the State must receive
not less than 25 percent of the net revenue.
(g) An applicant for a license, registration, or other
affirmative regulatory approval under Subsection (f) of this
section does not have any right to the license, registration, or
approval. A license or registration issued or other approval
granted to a person in accordance with a law enacted under
Subsection (f) of this section is a revocable privilege, and the
person does not acquire any vested right in or under the privilege.
The courts of this State do not have jurisdiction to review a
decision to deny, limit, or condition a license, registration, or
request for approval unless the judicial review is sought on the
ground that the denial, limitation, or condition is based on a
suspect classification, such as race, color, religion, sex, or
national origin, in violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the
Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. The court
must affirm the denial, limitation, or condition unless the
violation is proven by clear and convincing evidence.
SECTION 2. Article VII, Texas Constitution, is amended by
adding Section 3A to read as follows:
Sec. 3A. (a) In this section:
(1) "Available state revenue" means state revenue from
any source other than federal funds. The term does not include
revenue that, under another provision of this constitution, may be
used only for a particular purpose.
(2) "Increase in available state revenue" means the
amount by which the estimate made by the comptroller of public
accounts under Section 49a(a), Article III, of this constitution of
available state revenue for the succeeding fiscal biennium exceeds
the estimate made by the comptroller under that section of
available state revenue for the current fiscal biennium.
(b) In each fiscal biennium, an amount of general revenue
equal to one-third of any increase in available state revenue for
the biennium must be used to reduce, as provided by general law, the
rate of the school district maintenance tax authorized by Section
3(e) of this article.
SECTION 3. Section 3, Article VII, Texas Constitution, is
amended by amending Subsections (d) and (e) and adding Subsections
(f)-(j) to read as follows:
(d) The Legislature may provide for the formation of school
districts by general laws, and all such school districts may
embrace parts of two or more counties.
[(e)] The Legislature by general law may provide [shall be
authorized to pass laws for the assessment and collection of taxes
in all school districts and] for the management and control of the
public [school or] schools of such districts.
(e) A school district may impose an ad valorem tax on
taxable property in the district for the maintenance of public free
schools. The rate of the maintenance tax may not exceed $1.05 for
each $100 of taxable value.
(f) The Legislature may provide for school districts to
impose an additional ad valorem tax on all taxable property in the
district for the purpose of providing an enriched educational
program. The rate of the enrichment tax may not exceed $0.10 for
each $100 of taxable value.
(g) The Legislature may provide for school districts to
impose an additional ad valorem tax on all taxable property in the
district[, whether such districts are composed of territory wholly
within a county or in parts of two or more counties, and the
Legislature may authorize an additional ad valorem tax to be levied
and collected within all school districts for the further
maintenance of public free schools, and] for the erection and
equipment of school buildings.
(h) A school district may not impose a tax under Subsection
(e), (f), or (g) of this section unless the tax is approved by
[therein; provided that] a majority of the qualified voters of the
district voting at an election to be held for that purpose[, shall
approve the tax]. A tax imposed under Subsection (e) or (f) of this
section is not a state ad valorem tax for purposes of Section 1-e,
Article VIII, of this constitution.
(i) The Legislature may pass laws for the creation of junior
college districts, the management and control of those districts,
and the imposition of ad valorem taxes in those districts. A junior
college district may not impose a tax under this subsection unless
the tax is approved by a majority of the qualified voters of the
district voting at an election held for that purpose. A junior
college district is not a school district for purposes of this
section.
(j) An ad valorem tax approved by the voters of a junior
college district under this section on or before November 2, 2004,
is not affected by the amendment of this section approved by the
voters at an election held on November 2, 2004, and the junior
college district is not required to hold a new election to authorize
the existing tax. This subsection expires January 1, 2005.
SECTION 4. Section 3-b, Article VII, Texas Constitution, is
amended to read as follows:
Sec. 3-b. (a) A [No] tax for the maintenance of public free
schools voted in any independent school district or a [and no] tax
for the maintenance of a junior college voted by a junior college
district, and [nor] any bonds voted in any such district, but
unissued, are not [shall be] abrogated, cancelled, or invalidated
by change of any kind in the boundaries of the district [thereof].
(b) After any change in boundaries, the governing body of
any such district may, without the necessity of an additional
election, [shall have the power to] assess, levy, and collect ad
valorem taxes on all taxable property within the boundaries of the
district as changed, for the purposes of the maintenance of public
free schools or the maintenance of a junior college, as the case may
be, and for the payment of principal of and interest on all bonded
indebtedness outstanding against, or attributable, adjusted, or
allocated to, such district or any territory in the district
[therein], in the amount, at the rate, or not to exceed the rate,
and in the manner authorized in the district before [prior to] the
change in its boundaries[,] and [further] in accordance with the
laws under which all such bonds, respectively, were voted. The[;
and such] governing body of the district may [also shall have the
power], without the necessity of an additional election, [to] sell
and deliver any unissued bonds voted in the district before [prior
to] any such change in boundaries, and may [to] assess, levy, and
collect ad valorem taxes on all taxable property in the district as
changed, for the payment of principal of and interest on such bonds
in the manner permitted by the laws under which such bonds were
voted.
(c) If [In those instances where] the boundaries of any such
independent school district are changed by the annexation of, or
consolidation with, one or more whole school districts, the taxes
to be levied for the purposes [hereinabove] authorized by this
article may be in the amount or at not to exceed the rate previously
[theretofore] voted in the district having at the time of such
change the greatest scholastic population according to the latest
scholastic census, and only the unissued bonds of such district
voted before [prior to] such change[,] may be subsequently sold and
delivered. Unissued [and any voted, but unissued,] bonds of the
other school districts involved in such annexation or consolidation
may [shall] not [thereafter] be issued after the annexation or
consolidation.
SECTION 5. Article VII, Texas Constitution, is amended by
adding Section 5A to read as follows:
Sec. 5A. (a) The Texas education fund consists of:
(1) certain proceeds of the sales and use tax imposed
by a political subdivision of this state as provided by Section 25,
Article VIII, of this constitution; and
(2) other funds transferred or dedicated to the fund
by general law.
(b) The fund may be used only for public education.
SECTION 6. Section 1(i), Article VIII, Texas Constitution,
is amended to read as follows:
(i) Notwithstanding Subsections (a) and (b) of this
section, the Legislature by general law may limit the maximum
average annual percentage increase in the appraised value [of
residence homesteads] for ad valorem tax purposes of residence
homesteads and of other real property that is designed or adapted
for residential purposes and used primarily for residential
purposes by the owner of the property to five [10] percent, or a
greater percentage, for each year since the most recent tax
appraisal. A limitation on appraisal increases for property
authorized by this subsection:
(1) takes effect in the tax year following the first
tax year in which the owner owns the property on January 1 and in
which the owner qualifies the property as a residence homestead or
uses the property primarily for the owner's residential purposes,
or, if the property qualifies for an exemption as the [to a]
residence homestead of the owner under Section 1-b of this article
in the tax year in which the owner acquires the property, in [on the
later of the effective date of the law imposing the limitation or
January 1 of] the tax year following the [first] tax year in which
the owner acquires [qualifies] the property [for an exemption under
Section 1-b of this article]; and
(2) expires on January 1 of the [first] tax year
following the tax year in which [that neither] the owner of the
property when the limitation took effect ceases to own the property
or ceases to qualify the property as a residence homestead or to use
the property primarily for the owner's residential purposes, except
that the Legislature by general law may provide for the limitation
to continue during ownership of the property by [nor] the owner's
spouse or surviving spouse who qualifies the property for an
exemption under Section 1-b of this article.
SECTION 7. Section 1, Article VIII, Texas Constitution, is
amended by adding Subsection (i-1) to read as follows:
(i-1) Temporary Provision. (a) This temporary provision
applies to the constitutional amendment proposed by the 78th
Legislature, 4th Called Session, 2004, to authorize the legislature
to limit the maximum average annual increase in the appraised value
for ad valorem tax purposes of residence homesteads and other
owner-occupied residential real property and expires January 1,
2006.
(b) The amendment to Section 1(i), Article VIII, of this
constitution takes effect January 1, 2005, and applies only to a tax
year that begins on or after that date.
SECTION 8. Article VIII, Texas Constitution, is amended by
adding Section 25 to read as follows:
Sec. 25. The net revenue derived from the imposition of a
sales and use tax by a political subdivision of this state on the
sale or use of an item, including a service, that was not a taxable
item on December 31, 2004, and that becomes subject to the sales and
use tax after that date, shall be deposited to the credit of the
Texas education fund created by Section 5A, Article VII, of this
constitution.
SECTION 9. This proposed constitutional amendment shall be
submitted to the voters at an election to be held November 2, 2004.
The ballot shall be printed to permit voting for or against the
proposition: "The constitutional amendment providing financial
support for public education, limiting and reducing school property
tax rates, authorizing a school district property tax for
educational program enrichment, authorizing a five percent
limitation on annual increases in the appraised value for ad
valorem tax purposes of residence homesteads and other
owner-occupied residential real property, and authorizing the
state to operate video lottery games at racetracks and on Indian
lands."