By: Shapleigh S.B. No. 898
(In the Senate - Filed February 17, 2009; March 9, 2009,
read first time and referred to Committee on Transportation and
Homeland Security; March 30, 2009, reported favorably by the
following vote: Yeas 9, Nays 0; March 30, 2009, sent to printer.)
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to the purposes and designation of a municipal
transportation reinvestment zone.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Section 222.105, Transportation Code, is amended
to read as follows:
Sec. 222.105. PURPOSES. The purposes of Sections 222.106
and 222.107 are to:
(1) promote public safety;
(2) facilitate the development or redevelopment of
property;
(3) facilitate the movement of traffic; [and]
(4) enhance a local entity's ability to sponsor a
project authorized under Section 222.104; and
(5) enhance a municipality's ability to provide for
freight or passenger rail facilities or systems.
SECTION 2. Section 222.106, Transportation Code, is amended
by amending Subsections (b), (c), (g), (i), and (j) and adding
Subsections (k-1) and (m) to read as follows:
(b) This section applies only to a municipality the
governing body of which intends to:
(1) enter into an agreement with the department under
Section 222.104; or
(2) acquire, construct, improve, or operate a freight
or passenger rail facility or system, including commuter rail,
intercity rail, high-speed rail, and tri-track.
(c) If the governing body determines an area to be
unproductive and underdeveloped and that action under this section
will further the purposes stated in Section 222.105, the governing
body of the municipality by ordinance may designate a contiguous
geographic area in the jurisdiction of the municipality to be a
transportation reinvestment zone to promote:
(1) a transportation project described by Section
222.104 that cultivates development or redevelopment of the area;
or
(2) the acquisition, construction, improvement, or
operation of a freight or passenger rail facility or system by the
municipality.
(g) The ordinance designating an area as a transportation
reinvestment zone must:
(1) describe the boundaries of the zone with
sufficient definiteness to identify with ordinary and reasonable
certainty the territory included in the zone;
(2) provide that the zone takes effect immediately on
passage of the ordinance;
(3) assign a name to the zone for identification, with
the first zone designated by a municipality designated as
"Transportation Reinvestment Zone Number One, (City or Town, as
applicable) of (name of municipality)," and subsequently
designated zones assigned names in the same form, numbered
consecutively in the order of their designation;
(4) establish an ad valorem tax increment account for
the zone; [and]
(5) contain findings that promotion of the
transportation or rail project will cultivate development or
redevelopment of the zone; and
(6) for a zone intended to promote the acquisition,
construction, improvement, or operation of a freight or passenger
rail facility or system, provide a date for termination of the zone.
(i) Money deposited to a tax increment account must be used,
as applicable, to fund:
(1) projects authorized under Section 222.104,
including the repayment of amounts owed under an agreement entered
into under that section; or
(2) the acquisition, construction, improvement, or
operation of a freight or passenger rail facility or system.
(j) Except as provided by Subsections [Subsection] (k) and
(k-1), a transportation reinvestment zone terminates on December 31
of the year in which the municipality complies with a contractual
requirement, if any, that included the pledge of money deposited to
a tax increment account or the repayment of money owed under the
agreement under Section 222.104 in connection with which the zone
was designated.
(k-1) A transportation reinvestment zone designated to
promote the acquisition, construction, improvement, or operation
of a freight or passenger rail facility or system terminates on the
earlier of:
(1) the termination date specified in the ordinance
designating the zone or an earlier or later termination date
specified by an ordinance adopted subsequent to the ordinance
designating the zone; or
(2) the date on which all costs incurred in the
acquisition, construction, improvement, or operation of the
freight or passenger rail facility or system, tax increment bonds
and interest on those bonds, and other obligations have been paid in
full.
(m) In this section, "rail facility" has the meaning
assigned by Section 91.001.
SECTION 3. 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.
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