82R2832 JE-D
By: King of Parker H.B. No. 780
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to the abolition of school district maintenance and
operations ad valorem taxes.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. (a) The legislature finds that:
(1) ad valorem taxes are an inequitable source of
revenue to fund the maintenance and operations of school districts;
(2) school district maintenance and operations ad
valorem taxes increase annually without regard to the property
owner's ability to pay;
(3) school district maintenance and operations ad
valorem taxes are perpetual and detrimental to private property
rights as secured by the Texas Constitution;
(4) the use of ad valorem taxes as a means to finance
the maintenance of public free schools has led directly to three
decades of school finance litigation in which the Texas Supreme
Court has repeatedly declared the system unconstitutional and has
urged the legislature to "choose a new path" of revenue for public
free schools; and
(5) school district maintenance and operations ad
valorem taxes have created an inequitable and complicated means of
attempting to equalize funding by redistributing ad valorem tax
revenue under a system referred to as "Robin Hood."
(b) It is the intent of the legislature to abolish school
district maintenance and operations ad valorem taxes and to create
a more equitable means of meeting the state's constitutional duty
to make suitable provision for the support and maintenance of an
efficient system of public free schools.
SECTION 2. Section 45.002, Education Code, is repealed.
SECTION 3. (a) Except as provided by Subsection (b) of this
section, this Act takes effect September 1, 2011.
(b) Section 2 of this Act takes effect January 1, 2016, but
only if the constitutional amendment proposed by the 82nd
Legislature, Regular Session, 2011, to abolish school district
maintenance and operations ad valorem taxes beginning on January 1,
2016, in order that the legislature may enact a fairer system of
fully funding public education is approved by the voters. If that
amendment is not approved by the voters, Section 2 of this Act has
no effect.