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BILL ANALYSIS

 

 

Senate Research Center

S.B. 2370

 

By: Campbell

 

Local Government

 

7/19/2023

 

Enrolled

 

 

 

AUTHOR'S / SPONSOR'S STATEMENT OF INTENT

 

S.B. 2370 aims to amend the Special District Local Laws Code by creating the Comal County Water Improvement District No 3 (WID). The bill provides a way for voters in this district to petition for a division of the emergency services district overlaying the WID, in order to create a new emergency services district (ESD), after a public hearing and through an election. The purpose of this bill is to remove the WID from ESD 7 while keeping ESD 7 whole with regard to their property and sales tax collections, and to keep an agreement between the City of New Braunfels and Southstar Communities, the current property owner, intact. The WID encompasses land that was owned by the Texas General Land Office and sold to Southstar in 2021 for the development of a significant project in Comal County on the I-35 corridor, with parkland, trail connectivity, and housing. The purchase agreement required a development agreement with the City of New Braunfels, which included a strategic partnership agreement (SPA) for the limited annexation by the City and the sharing of sales tax collections for economic development. However, ESD 7 held an election in November 2021, capturing all of the available local sales tax, which undermined the SPA and the development agreement. S.B. 2370 provides the steps to remove the WID from ESD 7 in order to bring the site back to the baseline of where it was when the property was purchased and the agreement with the City was made.

 

(Original Author's/Sponsor's Statement of Intent)

 

S.B. 2370 provides the steps to remove the WID from ESD 7 in order to bring the site back to the baseline of where it was when the property was purchased and the agreement with the City was made.

 

The Bill:

 

S.B. 2370 proposes to amend Subtitle F, Title 5 Special District Local Laws Code, Chapter 8489, to allow for the division of Comal County Water Improvement District No. 3 into a new emergency services district by petition to the county judge of at least sixty percent of the district's qualified voters. The petition must include the name of the new emergency services district and a description of the territory proposed to be in the new emergency services district's territory. The bill also outlines the process for the commissioners court to approve the petition, order an election to confirm the division, and appoint a board for the new emergency services district.

 

Committee Substitute:

 

S.B. 2370 was filed as a non-legislative council draft. The language in S.B. 2370 is already provided in current statute under Section 775.221 of the Health and Safety Code, but the current statute language has been bracketed to certain counties that does not currently include Comal County. The committee substitute merely makes S.B. 2370 a legislative council draft and statutorily extends the capability for an emergency services district in Comal County to divide upon a majority vote in an election.

 

S.B. 2370 amends current law relating to the division of certain emergency services districts.

 

 

 

RULEMAKING AUTHORITY

 

This bill does not expressly grant any additional rulemaking authority to a state officer, institution, or agency.

 

SECTION BY SECTION ANALYSIS

 

SECTION 1. Amends Chapter 8489, Special District Local Laws Code, by adding Subchapter F, as follows:

 

SUBCHAPTER F.� DIVISION OF EMERGENCY SERVICES DISTRICT THAT OVERLAPS WITH THE DISTRICT

 

Sec. 8489.251.  DEFINITION. Defines "improvement district."

 

Sec. 8489.252.  AUTHORITY TO DIVIDE DISTRICT. Authorizes a county in which the improvement district is located to by order divide an emergency services district located in whole or in part in the improvement district and wholly in the county in the manner provided by this subchapter.

 

Sec. 8489.253.  PETITION FOR DIVISION; NOTICE OF HEARING. (a)� Requires the county judge, before an emergency services district is authorized to be divided under this subchapter, to receive a petition for division signed by at least 60 percent of the qualified voters of the improvement district.

 

(b) Requires that a petition for division include:

 

(1) the name of the new emergency services district to be created; and

 

(2) a description of the proposed territory of the new emergency services district.

 

(c) Authorizes the petition to include an agreement with a neighboring municipality to allow the municipality to provide fire and emergency medical services through the new emergency services district.

 

(d) Requires the commissioners court of the county, not later than the 30th day after the date the county judge receives a petition under this section, to set a place, date, and time for a hearing to consider the petition. Requires the commissioners court to issue a notice of the hearing that includes:

 

(1)  the name of the proposed emergency services district;

 

(2)  a description of the proposed emergency services district's boundaries; and

 

(3)  the place, date, and time of the hearing on the petition.

 

(e) Requires a commissioners court of a county that issues notice of a hearing under Subsection (d) to publish the notice in a newspaper of general circulation in the improvement district once a week for two consecutive weeks. Requires that the first publication occur not later than the 21st day before the date on which the hearing will be held.

 

Sec. 8489.254.  HEARING ON DIVISION OF EMERGENCY SERVICES DISTRICT.� (a) Requires the commissioners court, at a hearing on a petition for the division of an emergency services district under this subchapter, to consider the petition and each issue relating to the division of the emergency services district.

 

(b)  Authorizes any interested person to appear before the commissioners court to support or oppose the division.

 

(c) Requires the commissioners court to approve the petition not later than the 10th day after the date of the hearing if the commissioners court finds that:

 

(1)  the petition contains the number of signatures required under Section 8489.253; and

 

(2)  the proposed division is feasible.

 

(d)  Requires the commissioners court to consider any agreement described by Section 8489.253(c) submitted with the petition as evidence that the division of the emergency services district is feasible under Subsection (c) of this section.

 

Sec. 8489.255.  ELECTION TO CONFIRM DIVISION.� (a) Requires the commissioners court, if a commissioners court of a county approves a petition under Section 8489.254 to divide an emergency services district, to order an election to be held in the territory of the proposed new emergency services district to:

 

(1)  confirm the division of the existing emergency services district; and

 

(2)  authorize the imposition of a tax in the territory of the new emergency services district not to exceed the rate allowed by Section 48-e (Emergency Services Districts), Article III (Legislative Department), Texas Constitution.

 

(b)  Requires that notice of the election be given in the same manner as the notice of a hearing under Section 8489.253.

 

(c) Requires that the election be held on the first authorized uniform election date prescribed by the Election Code that allows sufficient time to comply with the requirements of law.

 

(d) Requires that the ballot be printed to provide for voting for or against the proposition: "Dividing the (insert name of emergency services district) to create a new emergency services district and authorizing the imposition of a tax."

 

(e) Requires the commissioners court by order, if a majority of the voters voting at the election vote to divide the emergency services district, to divide the emergency services district.

 

(f)  Requires the existing emergency services district and new emergency services district each to pay a pro rata share of the cost of an election held under this section, based on the assessed value of real property in each emergency services district subject to ad valorem taxation.

 

Sec. 8489.256.  DIVISION ORDER.� (a)� Requires that a county order dividing an emergency services district under this subchapter:

 

(1)  require the existing emergency services district to disannex the land of the new emergency services district;

 

(2)  create the new emergency services district in accordance with Chapter 775 (Emergency Services Districts), Health and Safety Code;

 

(3)  name the new emergency services district;

 

(4)  include the metes and bounds description of the territories of the new emergency services district and the existing emergency services district after disannexation; and

 

(5)  appoint the board of the new emergency services district in the manner described by Section 775.034 (Appointment of Board in District Located Wholly in One County), Health and Safety Code.

 

(b)  Requires the county judge to send to the Comptroller of Public Accounts of the State of Texas (comptroller) by certified or registered United States Mail a certified copy of a county order dividing an emergency services district under this subchapter.� Requires that the certified copy:

 

(1)  include the effective date of the division of the emergency services district; and

 

(2)  be accompanied by a map clearly showing the boundaries of the new emergency services district.

 

Sec. 8489.257.  TERMINATION OF AUTHORITY TO IMPOSE SALES AND USE TAXES. Provides that the authority of the existing emergency services district to impose sales and use taxes in the territory of the new emergency services district ends on the first day of the first calendar quarter after the comptroller receives a copy of the division order and map required by Section 8489.256.

 

Sec. 8489.258.  ADMINISTRATION OF EMERGENCY SERVICES DISTRICT AFTER DIVISION.� Provides that the board of the existing emergency services district continues in existence to govern the territory of the existing emergency services district after disannexation of the land of the new emergency services district.

 

Sec. 8489.259.  TAXATION FOR OUTSTANDING BONDED DEBT.� (a) Provides that the disannexation of territory from an emergency services district under this subchapter does not diminish or impair the rights of holders of any outstanding and unpaid bonds of the existing emergency services district.

 

(b)  Property disannexed under this subchapter is not released from its pro rata share of any of the existing emergency services district's bonded indebtedness on the date of the disannexation and the existing emergency services district is authorized to continue to tax property in the disannexed territory until that debt is paid as if the territory had not been disannexed.

 

(c) Prohibits the emergency services district, after the date a petition is filed under Section 8489.253 to divide an emergency services district, from pledging ad valorem tax revenue or sales tax revenue from the territory that is proposed in the petition to be disannexed from the emergency services district unless the division of the emergency services district fails to be approved at an election under this subchapter.

 

SECTION 2. Effective date: upon passage or September 1, 2023.