Bill Text: TX HJR153 | 2011-2012 | 82nd Legislature | Introduced

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Bill Title: Proposing a constitutional amendment authorizing the legislature to pass laws relating to junior college districts, including laws for the assessment and collection of taxes by a junior college district without the necessity of an election.

Sponsorship: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2011-03-23 - Referred to Higher Education [HJR153 Detail]

Download: Texas-2011-HJR153-Introduced.html

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82R10380 JRJ-D
By: Villarreal H.J.R. No. 153

A JOINT RESOLUTION
proposing a constitutional amendment authorizing the legislature
to pass laws relating to junior college districts, including laws
for the assessment and collection of taxes by a junior college
district without the necessity of an election.
BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Article VII, Texas Constitution, is amended by
adding Section 3-a and amending Section 3-b to read as follows:
Sec. 3-a. (a) The Legislature by general law may provide
for the formation, management, and control of junior college
districts.
(b) The Legislature by general law may provide for the levy
and collection of taxes by junior college districts for the
maintenance and operation of the districts and for the construction
and equipment of junior college buildings and other capital
improvements, and may authorize a junior college district to issue
bonds and other obligations payable from the taxes if approved by
the qualified voters of the district at an election held for that
purpose.
Sec. 3-b. No tax for the maintenance of public free schools
voted in any independent school district [and no tax for the
maintenance of a junior college voted by a junior college
district], nor any bonds voted in any such district, but unissued,
shall be abrogated, cancelled or invalidated by change of any kind
in the boundaries thereof. After any change in boundaries, the
governing body of any such district, without the necessity of an
additional election, shall have the power to assess, levy and
collect ad valorem taxes on all taxable property within the
boundaries of the district as changed, for the purposes of the
maintenance of public free schools [or the maintenance of a junior
college, as the case may be], and the payment of principal of and
interest on all bonded indebtedness outstanding against, or
attributable, adjusted or allocated to, such district or any
territory therein, in the amount, at the rate, or not to exceed the
rate, and in the manner authorized in the district prior to the
change in its boundaries, and further in accordance with the laws
under which all such bonds, respectively, were voted; and such
governing body also shall have the power, without the necessity of
an additional election, to sell and deliver any unissued bonds
voted in the district prior to any such change in boundaries, and to
assess, levy and collect ad valorem taxes on all taxable property in
the district as changed, for the payment of principal of and
interest on such bonds in the manner permitted by the laws under
which such bonds were voted. In those instances where the
boundaries of any such independent school district are changed by
the annexation of, or consolidation with, one or more whole school
districts, the taxes to be levied for the purposes hereinabove
authorized may be in the amount or at not to exceed the rate
theretofore voted in the district having at the time of such change
the greatest scholastic population according to the latest
scholastic census and only the unissued bonds of such district
voted prior to such change, may be subsequently sold and delivered
and any voted, but unissued, bonds of other school districts
involved in such annexation or consolidation shall not thereafter
be issued.
SECTION 2. This proposed constitutional amendment shall be
submitted to the voters at an election to be held November 8, 2011.
The ballot shall be printed to permit voting for or against the
proposition: "The constitutional amendment authorizing the
legislature to pass laws relating to junior college districts,
including laws for the assessment and collection of taxes by a
junior college district without the necessity of an election."