By: Creighton S.J.R. No. 74
(In the Senate - Filed March 8, 2019; March 21, 2019, read
first time and referred to Committee on Property Tax;
April 29, 2019, reported favorably by the following vote: Yeas 5,
Nays 0; April 29, 2019, sent to printer.)
Click here to see the committee vote
SENATE JOINT RESOLUTION
proposing a constitutional amendment authorizing the legislature
to exempt from ad valorem taxation real property leased to certain
schools organized and operated primarily for the purpose of
engaging in educational functions.
BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Section 2(a), Article VIII, Texas Constitution,
is amended to read as follows:
(a) All occupation taxes shall be equal and uniform upon the
same class of subjects within the limits of the authority levying
the tax; but the legislature may, by general laws, exempt from
taxation public property used for public purposes; actual places of
religious worship, also any property owned by a church or by a
strictly religious society for the exclusive use as a dwelling
place for the ministry of such church or religious society, and
which yields no revenue whatever to such church or religious
society; provided that such exemption shall not extend to more
property than is reasonably necessary for a dwelling place and in no
event more than one acre of land; any property owned by a church or
by a strictly religious society that owns an actual place of
religious worship if the property is owned for the purpose of
expansion of the place of religious worship or construction of a new
place of religious worship and the property yields no revenue
whatever to the church or religious society, provided that the
legislature by general law may provide eligibility limitations for
the exemption and may impose sanctions related to the exemption in
furtherance of the taxation policy of this subsection; any property
that is owned by a church or by a strictly religious society and is
leased by that church or strictly religious society to a person for
use as a school, as defined by Section 11.21, Tax Code, or a
successor statute, for educational purposes; any real property that
is leased to a person for use as a school that operates under a
charter granted by the State Board of Education, the commissioner
of education, or any other state agency or officer and that is
qualified as provided by Section 11.21, Tax Code, or a successor
statute; places of burial not held for private or corporate profit;
solar or wind-powered energy devices; all buildings used
exclusively and owned by persons or associations of persons for
school purposes and the necessary furniture of all schools and
property used exclusively and reasonably necessary in conducting
any association engaged in promoting the religious, educational and
physical development of boys, girls, young men or young women
operating under a State or National organization of like character;
also the endowment funds of such institutions of learning and
religion not used with a view to profit; and when the same are
invested in bonds or mortgages, or in land or other property which
has been and shall hereafter be bought in by such institutions under
foreclosure sales made to satisfy or protect such bonds or
mortgages, that such exemption of such land and property shall
continue only for two years after the purchase of the same at such
sale by such institutions and no longer, and institutions engaged
primarily in public charitable functions, which may conduct
auxiliary activities to support those charitable functions; and all
laws exempting property from taxation other than the property
mentioned in this Section shall be null and void.
SECTION 2. The following temporary provision is added to
the Texas Constitution:
TEMPORARY PROVISION. (a) This temporary provision applies
to the constitutional amendment proposed by the 86th Legislature,
Regular Session, 2019, authorizing the legislature to exempt from
ad valorem taxation real property leased to certain schools
organized and operated primarily for the purpose of engaging in
educational functions.
(b) The amendment to Section 2(a), Article VIII, of this
constitution takes effect beginning with the tax year that begins
January 1, 2020.
(c) This temporary provision expires January 1, 2021.
SECTION 3. This proposed constitutional amendment shall be
submitted to the voters at an election to be held November 5, 2019.
The ballot shall be printed to permit voting for or against the
proposition: "The constitutional amendment authorizing the
legislature to exempt from ad valorem taxation real property leased
to certain schools organized and operated primarily for the purpose
of engaging in educational functions."
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