HBA-KDB S.B. 1533 77(R)    BILL ANALYSIS


Office of House Bill AnalysisS.B. 1533
By: Madla
Ways & Means
4/27/2001
Engrossed



BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE 

Applications or requests for tax abatements usually require a significant
investment of a taxing unit's staff time.  However, current law does not
authorize a taxing unit to collect fees to help defray the costs of staff
time used to process tax abatement applications.  Senate Bill 1533 provides
that the guidelines and criteria of the commissioners court of a county may
include a requirement that an application or request for a tax abatement
must be accompanied by a reasonable application fee not to exceed $1,000. 

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

Senate Bill 1533 amends the Tax Code to provide that the guidelines and
criteria adopted by the commissioners court of a county may include a
requirement that an application or request for tax abatement submitted to
the county under the Property Redevelopment and Tax Abatement Act must be
accompanied by a reasonable application fee not to exceed $1,000. 

EFFECTIVE DATE

On passage, or if the Act does not receive the necessary vote, the Act
takes effect September 1, 2001.