Amend HB 1082, between SECTIONS 2 and 3 of the bill (committee
printing, on page 1, between lines 63 and 64), by adding the
following appropriately numbered SECTION to the bill and
renumbering existing SECTIONS accordingly:
SECTION ____. Section 42.221, Tax Code, is amended to read
as follows:
Sec. 42.221. CONSOLIDATED APPEALS FOR MULTICOUNTY PROPERTY
[PIPELINE OR ELECTRIC LINE]. (a) The owner of property of a
telecommunications provider, as defined by Section 51.002,
Utilities Code, or the owner of property regulated by the Railroad
Commission of Texas, the federal Surface Transportation Board, or
the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission [an oil or gas pipeline or
electric transmission or distribution line] that runs through or
operates in more than one county and is appraised by more than one
appraisal district may appeal an order of an appraisal review board
relating to the property running through or operating in more than
one county [pipeline or electric line, to property attached to or
connected with the pipeline or electric line, or to an easement or
other real property on which the pipeline or electric line is
located] to the district court of any county in which a portion of
the property [pipeline or electric line] is located or operated if
the order relating to that portion of the property [pipeline or
electric line] is appealed.
(b) A petition for review of each appraisal review board
order under this section must be filed with the court as provided by
Section 42.21. The fee for filing each additional petition for
review under this section [relating to a pipeline or electric line]
after the first petition for review relating to the same property
[pipeline or electric line] is filed for a tax year is $5.
(c) If only one appeal by the owner of property subject to
this section [an oil or gas pipeline or electric line] is pending
before the court in an appeal from the decision of an appraisal
review board of a district other than the appraisal district for
that county, any party to the suit may, not earlier than the 30th
day before and not later than the 10th day before the date set for
the hearing, make a motion to transfer the suit to a district court
of the county in which the appraisal review board from which the
appeal is taken is located. In the absence of a showing that
further appeals under this section will be filed, the court shall
transfer the suit.
(d) When the owner files the first petition for review under
this section for a [pipeline or electric line for a] tax year, the
owner shall include with the petition a list of each appraisal
district in which the property [pipeline or electric line] is
appraised for taxation in that tax year.
(e) The court shall consolidate all the appeals for a tax
year relating to a single property subject to this section
[pipeline or electric line] for which a petition for review is filed
with the court and may consolidate other appeals relating to other
property subject to this section [pipelines or electric lines] of
the same owner if the property is [pipelines or electric lines are]
located in one or more of the counties on the list required by
Subsection (d). Except as provided by this subsection, on the
motion of the [pipeline or electric line] owner of a property
subject to this section the court shall grant a continuance to
provide the owner with an opportunity to include in the proceeding
appeals of appraisal review board orders from additional appraisal
districts. The court may not grant a continuance to include an
appeal of an appraisal review board order that relates to a property
subject to this section [the pipeline or electric line] in that tax
year after the time for filing a petition for review of that order
has expired.
(f) This section does not affect the property owner's right
to file a petition for review of an individual appraisal district's
order relating to a property subject to this section [pipeline or
electric line] in the district court in the county in which the
appraisal review board is located.
(g) On a joint motion or the separate motions of at least 60
percent of the appraisal districts that are defendants in a
consolidated suit filed before the 45th day after the date on which
the property owner's petitions for review of the appraisal review
board orders relating to a property subject to this section
[pipeline or electric line] for that tax year must be filed, the
court shall transfer the suit to a district court of the county
named in the motion or motions if that county is one in which one of
the appraisal review boards from which an appeal was taken is
located.