By: Hegar S.B. No. 779

(In the Senate - Filed February 20, 2007; March 6, 2007, read first time and referred to Committee on Intergovernmental Relations; March 21, 2007, reported favorably by the following vote: Yeas 3, Nays 0; March 21, 2007, sent to printer.)

A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

AN ACT

relating to the appraisal of open-space land devoted principally to agricultural use.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

SECTION 1. Subdivision (2), Section 23.51, Tax Code, is amended to read as follows:

(2) "Agricultural use" includes but is not limited to the following activities: cultivating the soil, producing crops for human food, animal feed, or planting seed or for the production of fibers; floriculture, viticulture, and horticulture; raising or keeping livestock; raising or keeping exotic animals for the production of human food or of fiber, leather, pelts, or other tangible products having a commercial value; [and] planting cover crops or leaving land idle for the purpose of participating in a [any] governmental deficiency payment or conservation reserve program; and planting cover crops or leaving land idle in conjunction with [or] normal crop or livestock rotation procedure. The term also includes the use of land to produce or harvest logs and posts for the use in constructing or repairing fences, pens, barns, or other agricultural improvements on adjacent qualified open-space land having the same owner and devoted to a different agricultural use. The term also includes the use of land for wildlife management.

SECTION 2. This Act applies only to an ad valorem tax year that begins on or after the effective date of this Act.

SECTION 3. This Act takes effect January 1, 2008.

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