BILL ANALYSIS

C.S.H.B. 2614

By: Heflin

County Affairs

Committee Report (Substituted)

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

Under the Health and Safety Code, counties without a public hospital are required to provide certain medical services for indigent county residents.  If these expenditures exceed eight percent of a county's general revenue tax levy (GRTL), the county is eligible for state assistance through matching grant funds. 

Currently, expenditures for debt service are included in the calculation of the GRTL.  This penalizes counties that fund necessary capital improvements, such as jails, county buildings, and transportation projects, by the issuance of bonds and certificates of obligation.  These bonds and certificates of obligation, which are debt instruments, are then repaid by the levy of property taxes.

C.S.H.B. 2614 excludes expenditures for debt service by a county from the calculation of the general revenue levy.

RULEMAKING AUTHORITY

It is the committee's opinion that this bill does not expressly grant any additional rulemaking authority to a state officer, department, agency, or institution.

ANALYSIS

C.S.H.B. 2614 amends the Health and Safety Code to modify the definition of "general revenue levy" under the Indigent Health Care and Treatment Act such that property taxes imposed by a county that are dedicated to the payment of principal or interest on county debt are excluded from the definition. 

EFFECTIVE DATE

On passage, or, if the act does not receive the necessary vote, the act takes effect September 1, 2009.

COMPARISON OF ORIGINAL AND SUBSTITUTE

C.S.H.B. 2614 differs from the original by making nonsubstantive changes to conform to certain bill drafting conventions.