From the 83rd: HB 3613 Passes Senate at 12:29 a.m.

As my mom would say, HB 3613 passed by the “skin of its teeth” last night finally being voted out by the full Senate at 12:29 a.m. 

HB 3613 is the TMHA supported bill that would allow the MH Division of TDHCA to implement a process to verify if collection suits filed for tax liens on manufactured homes are four years or older.  If no tax suit has been initiated within the four year statute of limitations for tax collection, then TDHCA can remove the liens from the title records.

The bill now goes to the Governor’s desk where we will continue to encourage his signature and final passage of the bill.

We know there are many retailers, probably many reading this post, who over the years have paid for tax liens on used homes that dated beyond the most recent four years.  It is estimated there are currently more than 1.28 million tax liens on manufactured homes in TDHCA’s titling database that are older than four years.  With estimates of tax lien amounts ranging from $75 to over $1,500 each, passage of HB 3613 would set in motion purging the titling system of, well, you all can do the math to see just how much is at stake.

In other session news from last night was the boarder issue of the final state budget regarding water and education funding.  Both chambers had key bills already passed from the opposite chamber.  The Senate had HB 1025 which is the omnibus supplementary budget bill that would pull $2 billion from the states Rainy Day Fund into a new state wide water infrastructure bank. Quite literally across the hall of the Capitol at the same time, the House had SJR 1 that would create two accounts that would be used to fund water infrastructure projects in the state.  SJR 1 passes the choice to create these accounts to the voters in the next November election.

With a flurry of negotiations and skepticism increasing with intensity as the clock ticked by to the final deadline, it appeared at times no deal was salvageable.  The back and forth between the two chambers was, for lack of a better analogy, like two distrusting school yard kids agreeing to trade lunch desserts but not wanting to hand theirs over until the other does first.  Naturally, like on the playground, the solution is simple: “at the same time on the count of three…two…one…” 

The House took up and voted out SJR 1 130-16, easily surpassing the two-thirds super majority needed to access the state’s Rainy Day Account and pass on to voters next November the decision to create the new state revolving water infrastructure bank.  In the Senate they nearly simultaneously took up HB 1025 and voted it out 29-3.  HB 1025, among other things, contained $200 million for education funding that came from the negotiations with House Democrats and was contingent on the Democrats voting for SJR 1.

The 2013 Texas Session ends Monday.  We wish all our members a happy and safe Memorial Day weekend.  For those of us working through this weekend and Monday we will have to celebrate Memorial Day a bit later than the rest this year.

TMHA is finalizing our first of two new Texas MQ Quarterly magazines that will hit mailboxes soon.  The second issue, which we are currently writing as the session continues to progress, will be a special edition related exclusively to this legislative session.  For the full details of what passed, what died, and how TMHA worked for you this session, stay tuned and look to your mailboxes later next month.