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.