Honorable Joan Huffman, Chair, Senate Committee on State Affairs
FROM:
Ursula Parks, Director, Legislative Budget Board
IN RE:
SB479 by Schwertner (Relating to establishing actual progress for the purposes of determining the right to repurchase real property from a condemning entity.), As Introduced
Raising the number of actions to complete, while reducing the number of available actions, makes it more difficult for a condemning entity to ensure that actual progress has taken place. This could increase the costs the entity will need to expend to guaranty actual progress and also may result in more property repurchases. It cannot be estimated whether the repurchase price will cover the original purchase price and the costs incurred by the condemning entity in negotiating the repurchase agreement. Therefore, the fiscal impact of the bill cannot be determined at this time.
A person from whom a real property interest is acquired by an entity through eminent domain, or that person's heirs, is entitled to repurchase the property if the condemning entity has made no actual progress toward the public use for which the property was acquired before the tenth anniversary of the date of acquisition. The bill would increase from two to three the number of actions a condemning entity must complete in order to demonstrate making actual progress towards the public use for which the property was acquired. The bill would reduce the number of available actions from seven to five. The bill would eliminate as available actions the acquisition of an adjacent property or the adoption of a development plan by the governing body of the condemning entity indicating that the entity will not complete more than one action before the tenth anniversary of the date of acquisition of the property.
Local Government Impact
There would be a fiscal impact to local entities; however the amount cannot be determined. The fiscal impact to a local entity would vary depending on the amount of land eligible for repurchase under the provisions of the bill and the number of individuals seeking to repurchase such land.
Source Agencies:
304 Comptroller of Public Accounts, 305 General Land Office and Veterans' Land Board, 601 Department of Transportation, 802 Parks and Wildlife Department