By:  Janek                                                        S.B. No. 828


A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

AN ACT

relating to the eligibility of certain property owners to file a 
late notice of protest with an appraisal review board.
	BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:                        
	SECTION 1.  Section 41.44, Tax Code, is amended by amending 
Subsection (a) and adding Subsections (c-1) and (c-2) to read as 
follows:
	(a)  Except as provided by Subsections (b), [and] (c), (c-1), 
and (c-2), to be entitled to a hearing and determination of a 
protest, the property owner initiating the protest must file a 
written notice of the protest with the appraisal review board 
having authority to hear the matter protested:
		(1)  before June 1 or not later than the 30th day after 
the date that notice was delivered to the property owner as provided 
by Section 25.19, whichever is later;
		(2)  in the case of a protest of a change in the 
appraisal records ordered as provided by Subchapter A of this 
chapter or by Chapter 25, not later than the 30th day after the date 
notice of the change is delivered to the property owner; or
		(3)  in the case of a determination that a change in the 
use of land appraised under Subchapter C, D, E, or H, Chapter 23, 
has occurred, not later than the 30th day after the date the notice 
of the determination is delivered to the property owner.
	(c-1)  A property owner who files a notice of protest after 
the deadline prescribed by Subsection (a) but before the taxes on 
the property to which the notice applies become delinquent is 
entitled to a hearing and determination of the protest if the 
property owner was continuously employed in the Gulf of Mexico, 
including employment on an offshore drilling or production facility 
or on a vessel, for a period of not less than 20 days during which 
the deadline prescribed by Subsection (a) passed, and the property 
owner provides the appraisal review board with evidence of that 
fact through submission of a letter from the property owner's 
employer or supervisor or, if the property owner is self-employed, 
a sworn affidavit.
	(c-2)  A property owner who files a notice of protest after 
the deadline prescribed by Subsection (a) but before the taxes on 
the property to which the notice applies become delinquent is 
entitled to a hearing and determination of the protest if the 
property owner was serving on full-time active duty in the United 
States armed forces outside the United States on the day on which 
the deadline prescribed by Subsection (a) passed and the property 
owner provides the appraisal review board with evidence of that 
fact through submission of a valid military identification card 
from the United States Department of Defense and a deployment 
order.
	SECTION 2.  The change in law made by this Act applies only 
to a notice of protest for a tax year beginning on or after the 
effective date of this Act.  A notice of protest for a tax year 
beginning before the effective date of this Act is governed by the 
law in effect immediately before the effective date of this Act, and 
that law is continued in effect for that purpose.
	SECTION 3.  This Act takes effect January 1, 2006.