81R21025 SJM-F
By: Miller of Comal, Bolton H.B. No. 2788
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to the powers and duties of counties and emergency
services districts.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Section 775.0205(a), Health and Safety Code, is
amended to read as follows:
(a) If the territory in a district created under this
chapter overlaps with the boundaries of another district created
under this chapter [or a district created under Chapter 776], the
most recently created district may not provide services in the
overlapping territory that duplicate the services provided by the
other district at the time the overlapping district was created.
SECTION 2. Chapter 775, Health and Safety Code, is amended
by adding Subchapter I to read as follows:
SUBCHAPTER I. DIVISION OF DISTRICT
Sec. 775.221. AUTHORITY TO DIVIDE DISTRICT. The board of a
district located wholly in one county with a population of 125,000
or less may create a new district by disannexing territory from the
district and ordering a new district to be created in the disannexed
territory in the manner provided by this subchapter.
Sec. 775.222. PETITION FOR DIVISION; NOTICE OF HEARING.
(a) Before the district may be divided, the district's board must
receive a petition for division signed by at least seven percent of
the district's qualified voters or at least 100 of the district's
qualified voters, whichever is the lesser number.
(b) A petition for division must include:
(1) the name of the new district to be created; and
(2) a description of the territory proposed to be the
new district's territory.
(c) On receipt of a petition in the proper form, the board
shall set a place, date, and time for a hearing to consider the
petition.
(d) The board shall issue a notice of the hearing that
includes:
(1) the name of the proposed district;
(2) a description of the proposed district's
boundaries; and
(3) the place, date, and time of the hearing on the
petition.
(e) The board shall publish the notice in a newspaper of
general circulation in the district once a week for two consecutive
weeks. The first publication must occur not later than the 21st day
before the date on which the hearing will be held.
Sec. 775.223. HEARING ON DIVISION OF DISTRICT. (a) At the
hearing on the petition for division of the district, the board
shall consider the petition and each issue relating to the division
of the district.
(b) Any interested person may appear before the board to
support or oppose the division.
(c) If the board finds that the petition contains the number
of signatures required under Section 775.222(a), the board shall
approve the petition not later than the 10th day after the date of
the hearing.
Sec. 775.224. APPEAL. A resident of the district or an
owner of real or personal property located in the district may
appeal the board's decision on the division of the district by
filing an appeal in the district court in the county in which a
district is located only on the basis that the board incorrectly
tabulated the number of signatures on the petition.
Sec. 775.225. ELECTION TO CONFIRM DIVISION. (a) On
granting a petition to dissolve the district, the board shall order
an election to be held in the territory of the proposed new district
to confirm the division of the district.
(b) Notice of the election shall be given in the same manner
as the notice of hearing under Section 775.222.
(c) The election shall be held on the first authorized
uniform election date prescribed by the Election Code that allows
sufficient time to comply with the requirements of law.
(d) The ballot shall be printed to provide for voting for or
against the proposition: "Dividing the ________ Emergency Services
District to create a new emergency services district."
(e) If a majority of voters voting at the election vote to
divide the district, the board shall order the division.
(f) If a majority of those voting at the election vote
against dividing the district, the board may not order another
election on the issue before the first anniversary of the date of
the canvass of the election.
(g) The existing district and the new district each shall
pay a pro rata share of the cost of an election held under this
section, based on the assessed value of real property in each
district subject to ad valorem taxation.
Sec. 775.226. DIVISION ORDER. A board order to divide a
district must:
(1) disannex the land of the new district from the
existing district contingent on the approval of the creation of the
new district at the election held under this subchapter;
(2) create the new district in accordance with this
chapter;
(3) name the new district; and
(4) include the metes and bounds description of the
territory of the new district and the existing district after
disannexation.
Sec. 775.227. ADMINISTRATION OF DISTRICTS AFTER DIVISION.
(a) The existing board continues in existence to govern the
territory of the existing district after disannexation.
(b) If the new district is located wholly in one county, the
commissioners court shall appoint a board in the manner described
by Section 776.033 not later than the 14th day after the date of the
board order dividing the district.
Sec. 775.228. TAXATION FOR OUTSTANDING BONDED DEBT. The
disannexation of territory from a district under this subchapter
does not diminish or impair the rights of the holders of any
outstanding and unpaid bonds, warrants, or other obligations of
that district. Property disannexed under this subchapter is not
released from its pro rata share of any of the district's bonded
indebtedness on the date of the disannexation, and the district may
continue to tax property in the disannexed territory until that
debt is paid as if the territory had not been disannexed.
SECTION 3. Section 344.051(c), Local Government Code, is
amended to read as follows:
(c) Except as provided by Subsection (f), a district may be
created inside the boundaries of an emergency services district
operating under Chapter 775 [or 776], Health and Safety Code, only
if the governing body of the emergency services district gives its
written consent by order or resolution not later than the 60th day
after the date the governing body receives a request for its
consent.
SECTION 4. Section 151.027(c), Tax Code, is amended to read
as follows:
(c) This section does not prohibit:
(1) the examination of information, if authorized by
the comptroller, by another state officer or law enforcement
officer, by a tax official of another state, by a tax official of
the United Mexican States, or by an official of the United States if
a reciprocal agreement exists;
(2) the delivery to a taxpayer, or a taxpayer's
authorized representative, of a copy of a report or other paper
filed by the taxpayer under this chapter;
(3) the publication of statistics classified to
prevent the identification of a particular report or items in a
particular report;
(4) the use of records, reports, or information
secured, derived, or obtained by the attorney general or the
comptroller in an action under this chapter against the same
taxpayer who furnished the information;
(5) the delivery to a successor, receiver, executor,
administrator, assignee, or guarantor of a taxpayer of information
about items included in the measure and amounts of any unpaid tax or
amounts of tax, penalties, and interest required to be collected;
(6) the delivery of information to an eligible
municipality, county, or emergency services district in accordance
with Section 321.3022 or 323.3022; or
(7) the release of information in or derived from a
record, report, or other instrument required to be furnished under
this chapter by a governmental body, as that term is defined in
Section 552.003, Government Code.
SECTION 5. Section 323.101(f), Tax Code, is amended to read
as follows:
(f) The provisions of this chapter govern the application,
collection, and administration of a sales and use tax imposed under
Chapter 285 or [,] 775, [or 776,] Health and Safety Code, to the
extent not inconsistent with the provisions of those chapters.
Provided, however, that Subsection (b) shall not apply to a tax
authorized under those chapters.
SECTION 6. Subchapter D, Chapter 323, Tax Code, is amended
by adding Section 323.3022 to read as follows:
Sec. 323.3022. TAX INFORMATION. (a) In this section,
"emergency services district" means a district created under
Chapter 775, Health and Safety Code.
(b) Except as otherwise provided by this section, the
comptroller on request shall provide to a county or emergency
services district that has adopted a tax under this chapter:
(1) information relating to the amount of tax paid to
the county or district under this chapter during the preceding or
current calendar year by each person doing business in the county or
district who annually remits to the comptroller state and local
sales tax payments of more than $10,000; and
(2) any other information as provided by this section.
(c) The comptroller on request shall provide to a county or
emergency services district that has adopted a tax under this
chapter information relating to the amount of tax paid to the county
or district under this chapter during the preceding or current
calendar year by each person doing business in an area, as defined
by the county or district, that is part of:
(1) an interlocal agreement;
(2) a tax abatement agreement;
(3) a reinvestment zone;
(4) a tax increment financing district;
(5) a revenue sharing agreement;
(6) an enterprise zone;
(7) any other agreement, zone, or district similar to
those listed in Subdivisions (1)-(6); or
(8) any area defined by the county or district for the
purpose of economic forecasting.
(d) The comptroller shall provide the information under
Subsection (c) as an aggregate total for all persons doing business
in the defined area without disclosing individual tax payments.
(e) If the request for information under Subsection (c)
involves not more than three persons doing business in the defined
area who remit taxes under this chapter, the comptroller shall
refuse to provide the information to the county or emergency
services district unless the comptroller receives permission from
each of the persons allowing the comptroller to provide the
information to the county or district as requested.
(f) A separate request for information under this section
must be made in writing each year by the county judge or the
president of the board of the emergency services district.
(g) Information received by a county or emergency services
district under this section is confidential, is not open to public
inspection, and may be used only for the purpose of economic
forecasting, for internal auditing of a tax paid to the county or
district under this chapter, or for the purpose described by
Subsection (h).
(h) Information received by a county or emergency services
district under Subsection (c) may be used by the county or district
to assist in determining revenue sharing under a revenue sharing
agreement or other similar agreement.
(i) The comptroller may set and collect from a county or
emergency services district reasonable fees to cover the expense of
compiling and providing information under this section.
(j) Notwithstanding Chapter 551, Government Code, the
commissioners court of a county or the board of an emergency
services district is not required to confer with one or more
employees or a third party in an open meeting to receive information
or question the employees or third party regarding the information
received by the county or district under this section.
SECTION 7. Chapter 776, Health and Safety Code, is
repealed.
SECTION 8. (a) On the effective date of this Act, a
district created under Chapter 776, Health and Safety Code, is
converted into a district operated under Chapter 775, Health and
Safety Code. A district converted under this section continues in
existence and is subject to Chapter 775, Health and Safety Code.
(b) On and after the effective date of this Act, each person
serving as a fire commissioner of a district created under Chapter
776, Health and Safety Code, is an emergency services commissioner
and shall serve on the board of the district as an emergency
services commissioner for the remainder of the unexpired term to
which the person was elected.
SECTION 9. This Act takes effect immediately if it receives
a vote of two-thirds of all the members elected to each house, as
provided by Section 39, Article III, Texas Constitution. If this
Act does not receive the vote necessary for immediate effect, this
Act takes effect September 1, 2009.