Bill Text: TX HB2746 | 2015-2016 | 84th Legislature | Introduced


Bill Title: Relating to the treatment for ad valorem tax purposes of pollution control property.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 1-0)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2015-03-16 - Referred to Ways & Means [HB2746 Detail]

Download: Texas-2015-HB2746-Introduced.html
  84R5842 SMH-F
 
  By: Smith H.B. No. 2746
 
 
 
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 
AN ACT
  relating to the treatment for ad valorem tax purposes of pollution
  control property.
         BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
         SECTION 1.  Section 11.31, Tax Code, is amended by amending
  Subsections (a), (b), (c), (d), (g), (k), and (m) and adding
  Subsections (b-1), (b-2), and (b-3) to read as follows:
         (a)  A person is entitled to an exemption from taxation of
  all [or part] of the real and personal property that the person owns
  and that is used wholly or partly as a facility, device, or method
  for the control of air, water, or land pollution, subject to Section
  23.27. A person is not entitled to an exemption from taxation under
  this section solely on the basis that the person manufactures or
  produces a product or provides a service that prevents, monitors,
  controls, or reduces air, water, or land pollution. Property used
  for residential purposes, or for recreational, park, or scenic uses
  as defined by Section 23.81, is ineligible for an exemption under
  this section.
         (b)  In this section:
               (1)  "Facility [, "facility], device, or method for the
  control of air, water, or land pollution" means land that is
  acquired after January 1, 1994, or any structure, building,
  installation, excavation, machinery, equipment, or device, and any
  attachment or addition to or reconstruction, replacement, or
  improvement of that property, that is used, constructed, acquired,
  or installed wholly or partly to meet or exceed rules or regulations
  adopted by any environmental protection agency of the United
  States, this state, or a political subdivision of this state for the
  prevention, monitoring, control, or reduction of air, water, or
  land pollution.
               (2)  "Pollution control" or a similar term includes the
  prevention, monitoring, or reduction of pollution.
         (b-1)  This section does not apply to a motor vehicle.
         (b-2)  The circumstances in which property is considered to
  be used, constructed, acquired, or installed wholly or partly to
  meet or exceed rules or regulations described by Subsection (b)
  include circumstances in which:
               (1)  the property is used as part of a voluntary project
  or otherwise to meet or exceed a goal, target, or general standard
  set by a rule or regulation described by that subsection; or
               (2)  the property is used to meet or exceed a rule or
  regulation described by that subsection that has been adopted but
  does not apply to the property because of:
                     (A)  the date the property is installed;
                     (B)  the manner in which the property is used; or
                     (C)  the fact that the installation of the
  property reduces or prevents pollution in a manner that prevents
  the rule or regulation from applying to the property.
         (b-3)  For property to qualify for an exemption from taxation
  under this section, the control of air, water, or land pollution
  resulting from the use of the property must result from the use of
  the property by the person seeking the exemption and not from the
  characteristics of the goods produced or services provided by the
  person or the use of those goods or services by another person.
         (c)  In applying for an exemption under this section, a
  person seeking the exemption shall present in a permit application
  or permit exemption request to the executive director of the Texas
  Commission on Environmental Quality information detailing:
               (1)  the anticipated environmental benefits from the
  installation of the facility, device, or method for the control of
  air, water, or land pollution;
               (2)  the estimated cost of the pollution control
  facility, device, or method; and
               (3)  the purpose of the installation of such facility,
  device, or method[, and the proportion of the installation that is
  pollution control property].
         [If the installation includes property that is not used
  wholly for the control of air, water, or land pollution, the person
  seeking the exemption shall also present such financial or other
  data as the executive director requires by rule for the
  determination of the proportion of the installation that is
  pollution control property.]
         (d)  Following submission of the information required by
  Subsection (c), the executive director of the Texas Commission on
  Environmental Quality shall determine if the facility, device, or
  method is used wholly or partly as a facility, device, or method for
  the control of air, water, or land pollution.  As soon as
  practicable, the executive director shall send notice by regular
  mail or by electronic means to the chief appraiser of the appraisal
  district for the county in which the property is located that the
  person has applied for a determination under this subsection.  The
  executive director shall issue a letter to the person stating the
  executive director's determination of whether the facility,
  device, or method is used wholly or partly to control pollution
  [and, if applicable, the proportion of the property that is
  pollution control property].  The executive director shall send a
  copy of the letter by regular mail or by electronic means to the
  chief appraiser of the appraisal district for the county in which
  the property is located.
         (g)  The commission shall adopt rules to implement this
  section. Rules adopted under this section must:
               (1)  establish specific standards for considering
  applications for determinations, including standards for
  determining whether a facility or device is used as a facility,
  device, or method for the control of air, water, or land pollution;
  and
               (2)  be sufficiently specific to ensure that
  determinations are equal and uniform[; and
               [(3)     allow for determinations that distinguish the
  proportion of property that is used to control, monitor, prevent,
  or reduce pollution from the proportion of property that is used to
  produce goods or services].
         (k)  The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality shall
  adopt rules establishing a nonexclusive list of facilities,
  devices, or methods that qualify as facilities, devices, or methods
  for the control of air, water, or land pollution, which must
  include:
               (1)  coal cleaning or refining facilities;
               (2)  atmospheric or pressurized and bubbling or
  circulating fluidized bed combustion systems and gasification
  fluidized bed combustion combined cycle systems;
               (3)  ultra-supercritical pulverized coal boilers;
               (4)  flue gas recirculation components;
               (5)  syngas purification systems and gas-cleanup
  units;
               (6)  enhanced heat recovery systems;
               (7)  exhaust heat recovery boilers;
               (8)  heat recovery steam generators;
               (9)  superheaters and evaporators;
               (10)  [enhanced] steam turbine systems enhanced to
  accommodate steam from heat recovery systems;
               (11)  methanation;
               (12)  coal combustion or gasification byproduct and
  coproduct handling, storage, or treatment facilities;
               (13)  biomass cofiring storage, distribution, and
  firing systems;
               (14)  coal cleaning or drying processes, such as coal
  drying/moisture reduction, air jigging, precombustion
  decarbonization, and coal flow balancing technology;
               (15)  oxy-fuel combustion technology, amine or chilled
  ammonia scrubbing, fuel or emission conversion through the use of
  catalysts, enhanced scrubbing technology, modified combustion
  technology such as chemical looping, and cryogenic technology;
               (16)  so long as [if] the United States Environmental
  Protection Agency regulates [adopts a final rule or regulation
  regulating] carbon dioxide as a pollutant or if any other
  environmental protection agency of the United States, this state,
  or a political subdivision of this state adopts a final rule or
  regulation regulating carbon dioxide for that purpose, property
  that is used, constructed, acquired, or installed wholly or partly
  to:
                     (A)  capture and sequester in this state carbon
  dioxide from an anthropogenic source in this state; or
                     (B)  [that is] geologically sequester carbon
  dioxide captured from an anthropogenic source [sequestered in this
  state]; and
               (17)  fuel cells generating electricity using hydrogen
  derived from coal, biomass, petroleum coke, or solid waste[; and
               [(18)     any other equipment designed to prevent,
  capture, abate, or monitor nitrogen oxides, volatile organic
  compounds, particulate matter, mercury, carbon monoxide, or any
  criteria pollutant].
         (m)  Notwithstanding the other provisions of this section,
  if the executive director of the Texas Commission on Environmental
  Quality confirms that the facility, device, or method for the
  control of air, water, or land pollution described in an
  application for an exemption under this section is a facility,
  device, or method included on the list adopted under Subsection
  (k), the executive director [of the Texas Commission on
  Environmental Quality], not later than the 30th day after the date
  of receipt of the information required by Subsections (c)(2) and
  (3) and without regard to whether the information required by
  Subsection (c)(1) has been submitted, shall determine that the
  facility, device, or method described in the application is used
  wholly or partly as a facility, device, or method for the control of
  air, water, or land pollution and shall take the actions that are
  required by Subsection (d) to be taken in a case in which [the
  event] such a determination is made.
         SECTION 2.  Subchapter B, Chapter 23, Tax Code, is amended by
  adding Section 23.27 to read as follows:
         Sec. 23.27.  APPRAISAL OF PROPERTY AT FACILITY WHERE
  POLLUTION CONTROL PROPERTY IS INSTALLED. If the executive director
  of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality determines under
  Section 11.31 that property is used wholly or partly to control
  pollution, the chief appraiser:
               (1)  may evaluate whether the pollution control
  property facilitates an increase in production of goods at the
  facility or the sale of a marketable product at a profit in the
  ordinary course of business of the facility; and
               (2)  may take any additional income resulting from the
  facilitation by the pollution control property of the increase in
  production or the sale of a marketable product described by
  Subdivision (1) into account if the chief appraiser uses the income
  method of appraisal to determine the market value of the facility.
         SECTION 3.  Not later than December 31, 2015, the Texas
  Commission on Environmental Quality shall adopt rules as necessary
  to implement the changes in law made to Section 11.31, Tax Code, by
  this Act.
         SECTION 4.  Sections 11.31(b) and (m), Tax Code, as amended
  by this Act, and Sections 11.31(b-1), (b-2), (b-3), and 23.27, Tax
  Code, as added by this Act, are intended to clarify rather than
  change existing law.
         SECTION 5.  Sections 11.31(a), (c), (d), (g), and (k), Tax
  Code, as amended by this Act, apply only to ad valorem taxes imposed
  for a tax year beginning on or after January 1, 2016.
         SECTION 6.  (a) Except as provided by Subsection (b) of this
  section:
               (1)  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; and
               (2)  if this Act does not receive the vote necessary for
  immediate effect, this Act takes effect September 1, 2015.
         (b)  Sections 11.31(a), (c), (d), (g), and (k), Tax Code, as
  amended by this Act, take effect January 1, 2016.
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