Bill Text: TX HB82 | 2017 | 85th Legislature 1st Special Session | Introduced


Bill Title: Relating to the abolition of school district maintenance and operations ad valorem taxes.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 26-0)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2017-08-02 - Left pending in committee [HB82 Detail]

Download: Texas-2017-HB82-Introduced.html
  85S10306 CJC-D
 
  By: Darby H.B. No. 82
 
 
 
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  Section 45.002, Education Code, is repealed.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 December 1, 2017.
         (b)  Section 2 of this Act takes effect January 1, 2020, but
  only if the constitutional amendment proposed by the 85th
  Legislature, 1st Called Session, 2017, to abolish school district
  maintenance and operations ad valorem taxes beginning on January 1,
  2020, 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.
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