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5 Document(s) [ Subject: Urban areas ]

Committee: House Agriculture and Livestock
Title: Interim Report
Subjects: Agriculture | Agriculture, Texas Department of | Brush control | Drug testing | Firefighters | Forest Service, Texas A&M | Horse racing | Horses | Hunger | Racing Commission, Texas | Rural Affairs, Texas Department of | Urban areas | Veterinarians | Water conservation | Wildfires |
Library Call Number: L1836.82 Ag86
Session: 82nd R.S. (2011)
Online version: View report [56 pages]
Charges: This report should address the charges below.
1. Evaluate the role of community gardens and urban farming efforts that increase access to healthy foods and examine the possible impact that state and local policies have on the success of programs of this type. Determine the feasibility of policies to support these efforts, especially in high-population areas. (Joint with the House Committee on Urban Affairs)
2. Study the wildfire response performed by the Texas Forest Service and cooperating state agencies. Examine specifically how state laws and regulations could be enhanced to improve response effectiveness across the state. Study both the available causes of wildfires and mitigation and make recommendations as needed.
3. Study the adequacy of access to veterinarian care in rural areas of the state. Determine the impact that a lack of access may have on the agriculture business in Texas.
4. Examine the current enforcement system for performance-enhancing drug testing show horses, performance horses, and race horses in Texas. Specifically, review currently prohibited drugs and quantities to determine if any changes should be made to existing law. Compare the state's current regulations to other systems around the country and make specific recommendations on how the state's system could be improved.
5. Study the viability of cedar eradication as a means to enhance resource conservation.
6. Monitor the agencies and programs under the committee's jurisdiction and the implementation of relevant legislation passed by the 82nd Legislature. Specifically, monitor the consolidation of the Texas Department of Rural Affairs into the Texas Department of Agriculture's Rural Economic Division, ensuring that rural communities are not negatively affected by the consolidation.
Committee: Senate Intergovernmental Relations
Title: Interim Report
Library Catalog Title: Interim report to the 81st Texas Legislature
Subjects: Affordable housing | Bootstrap Self-Help Housing Program | Contracts for deed | Emergency services districts | Homeownership | Housing and Community Affairs, Texas Department of | Municipal utility districts | Special taxing districts | State government debt | Substandard housing | Suburban areas | Title insurance | University of Texas System | Urban areas | Urban sprawl |
Library Call Number: L1836.80 L786
Session: 80th R.S. (2007)
Online version: View report [394 pages]
Charges: This report should address the charges below.
1. Study and make recommendations on Texas’ housing programs, with particular focus upon:
    Increasing the effectiveness of the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs' (TDHCA) Housing Tax Credit (HTC) Program. Examine potential rule changes to the HTC Program's Qualified Allocation Plan to give owners of mixed-income projects seeking low-income housing credits the same opportunity to receive credits that low-income projects have, thus helping cities address the problem of a lack of adequate quality affordable housing while enhancing central city revitalization;
  • Significantly improving homeownership rates by evaluating Texas’ efforts to address the growing housing need. Efforts should include assessment of the range of tools which may be used to help low-income Texans develop equity through homeownership. Tools should be evaluated in terms of their economic development impact, leverage of federal and private funds, and how they are utilized in other states;
  • Evaluating the progress of affordable housing programs within the state and developing recommendations to boost the capacity of non-profits to build increased affordable housing developments;
  • Monitor the expansion of the Housing Trust Fund by the 80th Legislature; review the funds of other states to develop recommendations for a permanent funding source for the Texas Housing Trust Fund;
  • Promote home-ownership through self-help initiatives such as the Texas Bootstrap Loan Program;
  • Assessing the existing use of state and federal housing funds in relation to statutory and budgetary mandates; and
  • Examining the incidence of health and safety violations and concerns for general habitability among multi-family and single-family rental properties across the state, including properties financed or supported by the state. Consider the adequacy of the existing authority conferred by the state upon local governments to address violations of habitability standards. Make recommendations for extension of local capacity for redress.
2. Review title insurance requirements relating to the purchase of a home under an installment contract or contract for a deed. Study title insurance requirements and costs in Texas as compared to other states.
3. Study the provision of fire and emergency medical services through Emergency Service Districts (ESDs) and make recommendations concerning the provision of those services, and for reconciling potential conflicts due to overlapping taxing jurisdictions in the areas of the state served by ESDs.
4. Review the process for the creation of Municipal Utility Districts (MUDs) and other special districts, and investigate whether the creation of a standard municipal utility district statute is feasible, and whether it would enable the legislature to more efficiently evaluate proposed districts during the legislative session.
5. Study the shifting geographic nature of low-income neighborhoods in urban and suburban areas, focusing on factors that contribute to economic displacement of low income homeowners and factors that contribute to beneficial redevelopment of distressed neighborhoods.
6. Monitor the implementation of legislation addressed by the Intergovernmental Relations Committee, 80th R.S., and make recommendations for any legislation needed to improve, enhance, and/or complete implementation. Specifically, report on changes made by SB 968, 80th R.S., relating to financing tools for certain obligations for public improvements and for certain obligations of The University of Texas System and evaluate the need for further changes to Chapter 1371 Texas Government Code.
Committee: Senate Urban Affairs
Title: Interim Report
Library Catalog Title: An action program for urban Texas; report / of the Senate Interim Committee on Urban Affairs.
Subjects: Affordable housing | Job training programs | Mass transit | Substandard housing | Traffic | Urban areas | Workforce |
Library Call Number: L1836.61 ur1
Session: 61st R.S. (1969)
Online version: View report [71 pages  File size: 3,056 kb]
Charge: This report should address the charge below.
1. Make a study of urban problems within the State of Texas to determine the most effective method or methods of controlling and eliminating these urban problems, giving special consideration to the expansion of state services on urban problems to local governmental bodies through an urban affairs agency.
Supporting documents
Committee: Senate Urban Affairs
Title: Minutes, general purpose and plan, schedule of committee hearings, news articles
Library Catalog Title: Minutes
Library Call Number: L1836.61 UR1M
Session: 61st R.S. (1969)
Online version: View document [13 pages  File size: 14,960 kb]
Committee: Senate Urban Affairs
Title: Testimony Presented by Gene Rodriguez, Jr., Director, Concentrated Employment Program, San Antonio, Texas, May 8, 1970
Library Catalog Title: Minutes
Library Call Number: L1836.61 UR1TR
Session: 61st R.S. (1969)
Online version: View document [60 pages  File size: 17,694 kb]

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