Bill Text: TX HB629 | 2011-2012 | 82nd Legislature | Engrossed

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Bill Title: Relating to the use of municipal or county sales tax increment financing for a transportation reinvestment zone.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)

Status: (Engrossed - Dead) 2011-05-16 - Referred to Transportation & Homeland Sec. [HB629 Detail]

Download: Texas-2011-HB629-Engrossed.html

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By: Pickett H.B. No. 629

A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to the use of municipal or county sales tax increment
financing for a transportation reinvestment zone.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Section 222.106(g), Transportation Code, is
amended to read as follows:
(g) The ordinance designating an area as a transportation
reinvestment zone must:
(1) describe the boundaries of the zone with
sufficient definiteness to identify with ordinary and reasonable
certainty the territory included in the zone;
(2) provide that the zone takes effect immediately on
passage of the ordinance;
(3) assign a name to the zone for identification, with
the first zone designated by a municipality designated as
"Transportation Reinvestment Zone Number One, (City or Town, as
applicable) of (name of municipality)," and subsequently
designated zones assigned names in the same form, numbered
consecutively in the order of their designation;
(4) establish a [an ad valorem] tax increment account
for the zone; and
(5) contain findings that promotion of the
transportation project will cultivate development or redevelopment
of the zone.
SECTION 2. Subchapter E, Chapter 222, Transportation Code,
is amended by adding Section 222.108 to read as follows:
Sec. 222.108. SALES TAX INCREMENT. (a) In this section,
"sales tax base" for a transportation reinvestment zone means the
amount of sales and use taxes imposed by a municipality under
Section 321.101(a), Tax Code, or by a county under Chapter 323, Tax
Code, as applicable, attributable to the zone for the year in which
the zone was designated under this chapter.
(b) The governing body of a municipality or county may
determine, in an ordinance or order designating an area as a
transportation reinvestment zone or in an ordinance or order
adopted subsequent to the designation of a zone, the portion or
amount of tax increment generated from the sales and use taxes
imposed by a municipality under Section 321.101(a), Tax Code, or by
a county under Chapter 323, Tax Code, attributable to the zone,
above the sales tax base, to be used as provided by Subsection (e).
Nothing in this section requires a municipality or county to
contribute sales tax increment under this subsection.
(c) A county that designates a portion or amount of sales
tax increment under Subsection (b) must establish a tax increment
account. A municipality or county shall deposit the designated
portion or amount of tax increment under Subsection (b) to their
respective tax increment account.
(d) Before pledging or otherwise committing money in the tax
increment account under Subsection (c), the governing body of a
municipality or county may enter into an agreement, under
Subchapter E, Chapter 271, Local Government Code, to authorize and
direct the comptroller to:
(1) withhold from any payment to which the
municipality or county may be entitled the amount of the payment
into the tax increment account under Subsection (b);
(2) deposit that amount into the tax increment
account; and
(3) continue withholding and making additional
payments into the tax increment account until an amount sufficient
to satisfy the amount due has been met.
(e) The sales and use taxes to be deposited into the tax
increment account under this section may be disbursed from the
account only to:
(1) pay for projects authorized under Section 222.104,
including the repayment of amounts owed under an agreement entered
into under that section; and
(2) notwithstanding Sections 321.506 and 323.505, Tax
Code, satisfy claims of holders of tax increment bonds, notes, or
other obligations issued or incurred for projects authorized under
Section 222.104.
(f) The amount deposited by a county to a tax increment
account under this section is not considered to be sales and use tax
revenue for the purpose of property tax reduction and computation
of the county tax rate under Section 26.041, Tax Code.
(g) Not later than the 30th day before the date the
governing body of a municipality or county proposes to designate a
portion or amount of sales tax increment under Subsection (b), the
governing body shall hold a public hearing on the designation of the
sales tax increment. At the hearing an interested person may speak
for or against the designation of the sales tax increment.
Not
later than the seventh day before the date of the hearing, notice of
the hearing must be published in a newspaper having general
circulation in the county or municipality, as appropriate.
(h) The hearing required under Subsection (g) may be held in
conjunction with a hearing held under Section 222.106(e) or
222.107(e) if the ordinance or order designating an area as a
transportation reinvestment zone under Section 222.106 or 222.107
also designates a sales tax increment under Subsection (b).
SECTION 3. This Act takes effect immediately if it receives
a vote of two-thirds of all the members elected to each house, as
provided by Section 39, Article III, Texas Constitution. If this
Act does not receive the vote necessary for immediate effect, this
Act takes effect September 1, 2011.