By: Van de Putte, Eltife, Hinojosa S.B. No. 1956

A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

AN ACT

relating to assistance for local areas affected by defense restructuring.

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

SECTION 1. Subchapter A, Chapter 486, Government Code, is amended to read as follows:

SUBCHAPTER A. GRANTS TO LOCAL AREAS AFFECTED BY DEFENSE BASE

RESTRUCTURING

Sec. 486.001. DEFINITIONS. In this chapter:

(1) "Commission" means the Texas Military Preparedness Commission.

(2) "Defense worker" means:

(A) an employee of the United States Department of Defense, including a member of the armed forces and a government civilian worker;

(B) an employee of a government agency or private business, or entity providing a department of defense related function, who is employed on a defense facility;

(C) an employee of a business that provides direct services or products to the department of defense and whose job is directly dependent on defense expenditures; or

(D) an employee or private contractor employed by the United States Department of Energy working on a defense or department of energy facility in support of a department of defense related project.

(3) [(2)] "Defense worker job" means a department of defense authorized permanent position or a position held or occupied by one or more defense workers for more than 12 months.

[(3) "Department" means the Texas Department of Commerce.]

(4) "Panel" means the Defense Economic Adjustment Assistance Panel.

Sec. 486.002. GENERAL POWERS AND DUTIES. (a) The commission [department] shall administer and monitor the implementation of this chapter.

(b) The commission [department] shall establish criteria and procedures [for evaluations] and [awarding grants. The department shall] award grants equitably based on evaluations [so as to not disproportionally favor one defense-dependent community over another]. In awarding grants under this chapter, the commission [department] shall give a preference to adversely affected defense [defense-dependent] communities over positively affected defense [defense-dependent] communities.

(c) The commission [department] may use an amount equal to not more than two percent of the total amount of grants authorized during each biennium to administer this chapter and other law relating to readjustment of defense [defense-dependent] communities.

(d) The commission [department] shall adopt rules necessary to carry out the purposes of this chapter.

Sec. 486.003. ELIGIBILITY FOR GRANT. (a) A local governmental entity is eligible for a grant under this chapter if it is:

(1) a municipality or county that is a defense [defense-dependent] community;

(2) a regional planning commission that has a defense [defense-dependent] community within its boundaries;

(3) a public junior college district all or part of which is located in a defense [defense-dependent] community;

(4) a campus or extension center for education purposes of the Texas State Technical College System located in a defense [defense-dependent] community; or

(5) a defense base development authority created under Chapter 379B, Local Government Code.

(b) A municipality or county is an adversely affected defense [defense-dependent] community if the department determines that:

(1) the municipality or county includes within its boundaries a defense facility that the department of defense or applicable military department has publicly proposed for closure or realignment; or

(2) the municipality or county:

(A) requires assistance because of:

(i) the proposed or actual establishment, realignment, or closure of a defense facility;

(ii) the cancellation or termination of a United States Department of Defense contract or the failure of the department of defense to proceed with an approved major weapon system program;

(iii) a publicly announced planned major reduction in department of defense spending that would directly and adversely affect the municipality or county; or

(iv) the closure or a significant reduction of the operations of a defense facility as the result of a merger, acquisition, or consolidation of a defense contractor operating the facility; and

(B) is expected to experience, during the period between the beginning of the federal fiscal year during which an event described by Subdivision (2)(A) is finally approved and the date that the event is to be substantially completed, a direct loss of:

(i) 2,500 or more defense worker jobs in any area of the municipality or county that is located in an urbanized area of a metropolitan statistical area;

(ii) 1,000 or more defense worker jobs in any area of the municipality or county that is not located in an urbanized area of a metropolitan statistical area; or

(iii) defense worker jobs representing one percent of the jobs in the municipality or county.

(c) A municipality or county is a positively affected defense [defense-dependent] community if the commission [department] determines that a military facility located in or near the local governmental entity receives new or expanded military missions as a result of the United States Department of Defense base realignment process.

Sec. 486.004. GRANT CRITERIA. (a) From money appropriated for this purpose, the commission [department] may make a grant to an eligible local governmental entity to:

(1) allow the entity to meet a matching money or investment requirement in order to receive from the United States assistance that is provided to allow the local governmental entity to respond to or recover from an event described by Section 486.003(b)(1);

(2) match the entity's contribution for a purpose described in Section 486.005 on a closed or realigned defense facility; or

(3) construct infrastructure and other projects necessary to accommodate the new or expanded military missions at a military facility located in or near the local governmental entity.

(b) A grant may not be less than $50,000 or more than the least of:

(1) 50 percent of the amount of matching money or investment that the local governmental entity is required to provide, subject to Subsection (c);

(2) 50 percent of the local governmental entity's investment for purposes described in Section 486.005, in cases where United States assistance is not available; or

(3) $2 million.

(c) If the local governmental entity demonstrates to the commission [department] that, because of a limited budget, resources are not available to provide 50 percent of the amount of matching money or investment that the local governmental entity is required to provide, the grant may be not more than 80 percent of the amount of that matching money or investment requirement, but may not be more than $2 million.

(d) The commission [department] may make a grant to an eligible local governmental entity described by Section 486.003(a)(3) or (4) without regard to the availability or acquisition of matching money.

Sec. 486.005. USE OF PROCEEDS. (a) The local governmental entity may use the proceeds of the grant for purchase of property from the department of defense or its designated agent, new construction, rehabilitation, or renovation of facilities or infrastructure, or purchase of capital equipment or facilities insurance.

(b) The local governmental entity may deliver the money to a special district, development corporation, or other instrumentality of the state or the local governmental entity for use as provided by this chapter and other applicable law.

(c) An eligible local governmental entity described by Section 486.003(a)(3) or (4) may use the proceeds of the grant to purchase or lease equipment to train defense workers whose jobs have been threatened or lost because of an event described by Section 486.003(b)(2)(A).

Sec. 486.006. DEFENSE ECONOMIC ADJUSTMENT ASSISTANCE PANEL. The commission [department] shall establish a defense economic adjustment assistance panel [within the department]. The panel consists of at least three and not more than five professional full-time employees of the Office of the Governor [department] appointed by the [executive] director of the commission [department].

Sec. 486.007. APPLICATION FOR GRANT. A local governmental entity may apply for a grant under this chapter to the commission [department] on a form prescribed by the commission [department]. The commission [department] shall establish periodic application cycles to enable the panel and commission [department] to evaluate groups of applicants in relation to each other.

Sec. 486.008. EVALUATION OF APPLICATION. The panel shall evaluate each application and assign the applicant a score based on:

(1) the significance of the adverse or positive effect within the local governmental entity, including the number of jobs lost or gained in relation to the workforce in the local governmental entity's jurisdiction and the effect on the area's economy and tax revenue;

(2) the extent to which the local governmental entity has used its existing resources to promote local economic development;

(3) the amount of any grant that the local governmental entity has previously received under this chapter;

(4) the anticipated number of jobs to be created in relation to the amount of the grant sought; and

(5) the extent to which the grant will affect the region in which the local governmental entity is located.

Sec. 486.009. MAKING OF GRANT. The panel shall submit its scores to the commission [department's governing body]. The commission [governing body] shall use the scores to determine whether to make a grant to an applicant. The commission [governing body] may not make a grant unless the legislature has appropriated the money for the grant.

Sec. 486.010. DEFENSE [DEFENSE-DEPENDENT] COMMUNITY WITH MORE THAN ONE MILITARY FACILITY. For purposes of the preference for adversely affected defense [defense-dependent] communities under Section 486.002(b), a defense [defense-dependent] community that contains or is near more than one military facility is considered an adversely affected defense [defense-dependent] community if the local governmental entity is applying for a grant under this subchapter for a project relating to the military facility that is closed or whose operations are significantly reduced.

SECTION 2. Subchapter B, Chapter 486, Government Code, is repealed.

SECTION 3. This Act takes effect September 1, 2007.