Positive News Out of the Texas Legislature

As you may know, yesterday at midnight was the deadline for all pending bills to pass out of the Texas House and Senate. From this point forward, the legislature may only consider bills that have passed out of the other house (i.e. the House may only vote bills passed out of the Senate, and the Senate may only vote on bills that have passed out of the House). 

There is good news to report on Houston BOMA issues:

Retainage Trust Fund Bill (HB 3316) – this bill would have required that building owners fund a trust for retainage on construction projects in excess of $500K. BOMA provided testimony that the passage of this bill would increase construction costs by as much as one and a half percent state-wide.

Our lobby team at Locke Lord provided a point of order on this bill – thus killing it for this session. A point of order is a parliamentary action that points out a violation of the House rules. It is the House speaker's responsibility to ensure that the rules are enforced, but the point of order allows legislators to interject and declare a violation that has been overlooked.

Once declared, a point of order takes precedent on the floor, and the speaker must decide whether there has been a violation before continuing. If the speaker overrules a point of order, business continues as usual.
If the speaker agrees that a rules violation has occurred, then the point of order is sustained, which can delay the passage of a bill until the error is fixed.
The Retainage Trust Fund bill was killed in this manner last night around 11:30 PM.

The Margin Tax Bill (HB 500) - This bill includes an exclusion from gross revenues for commercial landlord’s payments for property taxes. Bill passed out of the House and has moved on to the Senate with the BOMA exclusion which reads: 

SECTION 7.  (g-9)  A taxable entity that is a landlord of commercial property shall exclude from its total revenue, to the extent included under Subsection (c)(1)(A), (2)(A), or (3), payments, excluding expenses for interest and depreciation and other expenses not listed in this subsection, received from a tenant of the property for ad valorem taxes and any tax or excise imposed on rents. 

There has been no movement on any unfavorable property tax bills and no movement on the mandatory sales price disclosure bill (this bill did not receive a hearing).#tb