By:  Kolkhorst, Cook of Navarro, Chisum,                          H.B. No. 2928
 
    McReynolds, et al.                                                       


A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

AN ACT

relating to projects that may be undertaken by certain development 
corporations with respect to business enterprises or business 
development.
	BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:                        
	SECTION 1.  Section 2(11), Development Corporation Act of 
1979 (Article 5190.6, Vernon's Texas Civil Statutes), is amended to 
read as follows:
		(11) [(A)]  "Project" shall mean:                     
			(A)  the land, buildings, equipment, facilities, 
expenditures, targeted infrastructure, and improvements (one or 
more) that are for the creation or retention of primary jobs and 
that are found by the board of directors to be required or suitable 
for the development, retention, or expansion of manufacturing and 
industrial facilities, research and development facilities, 
transportation facilities (including but not limited to airports, 
ports, mass commuting facilities, and parking facilities), sewage 
or solid waste disposal facilities, recycling facilities, air or 
water pollution control facilities, facilities for the furnishing 
of water to the general public, distribution centers, small 
warehouse facilities capable of serving as decentralized storage 
and distribution centers, primary job training facilities for use 
by institutions of higher education, and regional or national 
corporate headquarters facilities;[.]
			(B)  ["Project" also includes] job training 
required or suitable for the promotion of development and expansion 
of business enterprises and other enterprises described by this 
Act, as provided by Section 38 of this Act;[.]
			(C)  ["Project" also includes] expenditures found 
by the board of directors to be required or suitable for 
infrastructure necessary to promote or develop new or expanded 
business enterprises limited to streets and roads, rail spurs, 
water and sewer utilities, electric utilities, gas utilities, 
drainage, site improvements, and related improvements, [and] 
telecommunications and Internet improvements, and beach 
remediation along the Gulf of Mexico; or
			(D)  the land, buildings, equipment, facilities, 
expenditures, targeted infrastructure, and improvements found by 
the board of directors to be required or suitable for the 
revitalization or improvement of the economic vitality of a 
blighted area of the city that created the corporation.
	SECTION 2.  Section 2, Development Corporation Act of 1979 
(Article 5190.6, Vernon's Texas Civil Statutes), is amended by 
adding Subdivision (19) to read as follows:
		(19)  "Blighted area" means an area of a city, or an 
area adjacent to such an area of a city, in which a substantial 
number of substandard, slum, deteriorated, or deteriorating 
structures that the city finds are a menace to the public health, 
safety, or welfare in their present condition and use are located or 
an area that has been designated and included in a reinvestment zone 
created under Chapter 311, Tax Code.
	SECTION 3.  Section 4B(a), Development Corporation Act of 
1979 (Article 5190.6, Vernon's Texas Civil Statutes), is amended by 
adding Subdivision (3) to read as follows:
		(3)  For a corporation created by an eligible city with 
a population of 20,000 or less, "project" shall also include the 
land, buildings, equipment, facilities, expenditures, targeted 
infrastructure, and improvements found by the board of directors to 
promote new or expanded business development.  A corporation may 
not undertake a project authorized by this subdivision that 
requires an expenditure of more than $10,000 until the governing 
body of the eligible city creating the corporation adopts a 
resolution authorizing the project after giving the resolution at 
least two separate readings.
	SECTION 4.  Section 40(a), Development Corporation Act of 
1979 (Article 5190.6, Vernon's Texas Civil Statutes), is amended to 
read as follows:
	(a)  A corporation created under this Act may not provide a 
direct incentive to or make an expenditure on behalf of a business 
enterprise under a project as defined by Section 2 or 4B(a)(2) or 
(3) of this Act unless the corporation enters into a performance 
agreement with the business enterprise.
	SECTION 5.  This Act takes effect September 1, 2005.