BILL ANALYSIS

C.S.H.B. 1215

By: Collier

Urban Affairs

Committee Report (Substituted)

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

Recent reports indicate that the state’s largest urban areas are rapidly growing, but the supply of affordable housing has not kept up with demand. It has been suggested that the housing tax credit program administered by the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs (TDHCA) could fill the gap, but the sites approved by the TDHCA in recent years have been mostly located in suburban locations. While recent legislative efforts addressed this issue by instituting a two-year trial period during which educational quality was a threshold consideration in the application under the program, there is concern that the expiration of the trial period could deprive communities where housing is much needed from obtaining these tax credits. C.S.H.B. 1215 seeks to remedy this situation by including educational quality among the permanent criteria for obtaining these tax credits.

CRIMINAL JUSTICE IMPACT

It is the committee's opinion that this bill does not expressly create a criminal offense, increase the punishment for an existing criminal offense or category of offenses, or change the eligibility of a person for community supervision, parole, or mandatory supervision.

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. 1215 amends the Government Code to authorize the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs (TDHCA) to require as part of the threshold criteria under a qualified allocation plan for the low income housing tax credit program that a proposed development satisfy certain criteria relating to educational quality, as specified by the TDHCA in that plan. The bill prohibits the TDHCA from adopting a qualified allocation plan that uses a scoring system that awards points to an application based on criteria relating to the educational quality applicable to a proposed development site.

C.S.H.B. 1215 applies only to an application for low income housing tax credits that is submitted to the TDHCA during an application cycle that is based on the 2020 qualified allocation plan or a subsequent plan adopted by the governing board of the TDHCA.

EFFECTIVE DATE

September 1, 2019.

COMPARISON OF ORIGINAL AND SUBSTITUTE

While C.S.H.B. 1215 may differ from the original in minor or nonsubstantive ways, the following summarizes the substantial differences between the introduced and committee substitute versions of the bill.

The substitute does not include a temporary provision requiring the governing board of the TDHCA, with respect to the 2019 application cycle, to ensure that the 2018 qualified allocation plan conforms to the bill's requirements and to amend the plan as necessary for that purpose.