HBA-KDB H.B. 1285 77(R)BILL ANALYSIS Office of House Bill AnalysisH.B. 1285 By: Brimer Ways & Means 7/20/2001 Enrolled BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Prior to the 77th Legislature, the comptroller of public accounts (comptroller) could only provide sales tax information on businesses that remitted payments of $100,000 or more to certain cities based on population. Cities are in need of sales tax information in the aggregate for a defined area to establish benchmarks to evaluate the effectiveness of certain economic development incentives as well as to apportion revenue under interlocal revenue sharing agreements. Such information may be useful to a municipality when establishing its budget or making other considerations. House Bill 1285 authorizes municipalities to request from the comptroller sales tax information for each person doing business in a defined area. The information can only be provided by the comptroller as an aggregate total for all persons doing business in the defined area without disclosing individual tax payments. RULEMAKING AUTHORITY It is the opinion of the Office of House Bill Analysis that this bill does not expressly delegate any additional rulemaking authority to a state officer, department, agency, or institution. ANALYSIS House Bill 1285 amends the Tax Code to require the comptroller of public accounts (comptroller) on request to provide to a municipality that has adopted a municipal sales and use tax (tax) with information relating to the amount of tax paid to the municipality during the preceding or current calendar year by each person doing business in an area, as defined by the municipality, that is part of: _an interlocal agreement; _a tax abatement agreement; _a reinvestment zone; _a tax increment financing district; _a revenue sharing agreement; _an enterprise zone; _a neighborhood empowerment zone; _any other similar agreement, zone, or district; or _any area defined by the municipality for the purpose of economic forecasting. The bill requires the comptroller to provide such information as an aggregate total for all persons doing business in the defined area without disclosing individual tax payments. If the request for such information involves not more than three persons doing business in the defined area that remit taxes, the bill requires the comptroller to refuse to provide the information to the municipality unless the comptroller receives permission from each of the persons allowing the comptroller to provide the information to the municipality as requested. The bill authorizes such information to be used by the municipality to assist in determining revenue sharing under a revenue sharing agreement or other similar agreement. EFFECTIVE DATE June 14, 2001.