Bill Text: TX HB82 | 2017 | 85th Legislature 1st Special Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Relating to the abolition of school district maintenance and operations ad valorem taxes.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 26-0)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2017-08-02 - Left pending in committee [HB82 Detail]
Download: Texas-2017-HB82-Introduced.html
| 85S10306 CJC-D | ||
| By: Darby | H.B. No. 82 | |
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| relating to the abolition of school district maintenance and | ||
| operations ad valorem taxes. | ||
| BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS: | ||
| SECTION 1. (a) The legislature finds that: | ||
| (1) ad valorem taxes are an inequitable source of | ||
| revenue to fund the maintenance and operations of school districts; | ||
| (2) school district maintenance and operations ad | ||
| valorem taxes increase annually without regard to the property | ||
| owner's ability to pay; | ||
| (3) school district maintenance and operations ad | ||
| valorem taxes are perpetual and detrimental to private property | ||
| rights as secured by the Texas Constitution; | ||
| (4) the use of ad valorem taxes as a means to finance | ||
| the maintenance of public free schools has led directly to three | ||
| decades of school finance litigation in which the Texas Supreme | ||
| Court has repeatedly declared the system unconstitutional and has | ||
| urged the legislature to "choose a new path" of revenue for public | ||
| free schools; and | ||
| (5) school district maintenance and operations ad | ||
| valorem taxes have created an inequitable and complicated means of | ||
| attempting to equalize funding by redistributing ad valorem tax | ||
| revenue under a system referred to as "Robin Hood." | ||
| (b) It is the intent of the legislature to abolish school | ||
| district maintenance and operations ad valorem taxes and to create | ||
| a more equitable means of meeting the state's constitutional duty | ||
| to make suitable provision for the support and maintenance of an | ||
| efficient system of public free schools. | ||
| SECTION 2. Section 45.002, Education Code, is repealed. | ||
| SECTION 3. (a) Except as provided by Subsection (b) of this | ||
| section, this Act takes effect December 1, 2017. | ||
| (b) Section 2 of this Act takes effect January 1, 2020, but | ||
| only if the constitutional amendment proposed by the 85th | ||
| Legislature, 1st Called Session, 2017, to abolish school district | ||
| maintenance and operations ad valorem taxes beginning on January 1, | ||
| 2020, in order that the legislature may enact a fairer system of | ||
| fully funding public education is approved by the voters. If that | ||
| amendment is not approved by the voters, Section 2 of this Act has | ||
| no effect. | ||
