BILL ANALYSIS

C.S.H.B. 3044

By: Klick

Elections

Committee Report (Substituted)

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

It has been reported that Texas is the only state that does not permit corporate charitable match solicitation programs. In response to these reports, there have been calls for Texas to align more closely with the laws of other states and federal law regarding these programs. C.S.H.B. 3044 seeks to address this issue by allowing a partial or full matching contribution to a designated 501(c)(3) organization.

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. 3044 amends the Election Code to specify that the political expenditures authorized to be made by a corporation to finance the solicitation of political contributions to a general-purpose committee include fully or partially matching contributions to charitable organizations exempted from federal income tax under the federal Internal Revenue Code of 1986.

EFFECTIVE DATE

September 1, 2019.

COMPARISON OF ORIGINAL AND SUBSTITUTE

While C.S.H.B. 3044 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 clarifies the types of political expenditures a corporation may make to finance the applicable solicitation and specifies the type of charitable organizations for which the corporation may fully or partially match contributions to finance the solicitation as 501(c)(3) organizations.