HBA-KDB C.S.H.B. 1285 77(R)BILL ANALYSIS Office of House Bill AnalysisC.S.H.B. 1285 By: Brimer Ways & Means 4/3/2001 Committee Report (Substituted) BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Under current law, the comptroller of public accounts (comptroller) can only provide sales tax information on businesses that remit 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. C.S.H.B. 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 C.S.H.B. 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 comptroller is authorized to refuse to provide the information to the municipality if doing so could have the effect of disclosing the proprietary sales information of those businesses. 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 On passage, or if the Act does not receive the necessary vote, the Act takes effect September 1, 2001. COMPARISON OF ORIGINAL TO SUBSTITUTE C.S.H.B. 1285 restores 275,000 as the maximum population of a municipality for which the comptroller of public accounts (comptroller) on request is required to provide certain tax information to a municipality that has adopted a municipal sales and use tax (tax). The substitute adds new language to require the comptroller to provide information relating to the amount of tax paid to the municipality as an aggregate total for all persons doing business in the defined area without disclosing individual tax payments. The substitute authorizes such information to be used by the municipality to assist in determining revenue sharing under a revenue sharing agreement or other similar agreement. The substitute adds new language to authorize the comptroller, if the request for such information involves not more than three persons doing business in the defined area that remit taxes, to refuse to provide the information to the municipality if doing so could have the effect of disclosing the proprietary sales information of those businesses. The bill increases the types of municipally defined areas for which the comptroller of public accounts is required to provide tax information to a municipality.