HBA-EDN H.B. 3329 77(R)BILL ANALYSIS Office of House Bill AnalysisH.B. 3329 By: Averitt Financial Institutions 7/2/2001 Enrolled BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Federal law limits the amount of tax-exempt financing that may be used to benefit private entities or individuals each year and authorizes each state to allocate this money through a private activity bond allocation program . The United States Congress has set the state ceiling on bonds for fiscal years 2001 and 2002. House Bill 3329 dedicates a portion of the state ceilings available exclusively for reservations by issuers of qualified small issue bonds and enterprise zone facility bonds for a limited time to the Texas Agricultural Finance Authority for the purpose of issuing such bonds in rural areas of the state and provides that current provisions regarding private activity bonds expire September 1, 2003. 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 3329 amends the Government Code to provide that until June 1, of that portion of the state ceiling that is available exclusively for reservations by issuers of qualified small issue bonds and enterprise zone facility bonds, one-third is available exclusively to TAFA for the purpose of issuing such bonds in rural areas of the state. The bill provides that TAFA is exempt from the requirement that an issuer of bonds provide a statement on an application for reservation that bonds are not being issued for the same stated project for which the issuer has received sufficient carryforward during a previous year or for which there exists unexpended proceeds from one or more prior issues of bonds issued by the same issuer or based on the issuer's population. H.B. 3329 provides that the existing state ceiling rates for the private activity bond allocation program expire September 1, 2003. EFFECTIVE DATE September 1, 2001.