(*1*), our each day publication that retains readers on top of things on essentially the most important Texas news.
Several laws handed within the 2021 Texas legislative classes laws took effect Jan. 1, together with a revision to how property taxes are collected, an enlargement of the judicial department and an modification to air pollution requirements.
Senate Bill 12, written by Sen. Paul Bettencourt, R-Houston, limits the quantity of property taxes a college district can levy on the homestead of an aged or disabled particular person, based on a bill analysis by the Senate Research Center.
To guarantee that districts are usually not burdened however a lower in income, the legislation makes district eligible for extra state support. The legislation addresses a perceived shortcoming of the varsity funding overhaul lawmakers passed in 2019. That legislation offered further state cash to highschool districts so that they, in flip, might decrease native property tax charges. But aged and disabled owners weren’t entitled to this discount.
House Bill 3774, authored by Rep. Jeff Leach, R-Plano, consists of a number of reforms to the judicial department. It creates 10 district courts, 5 statutory county courts, one statutory probate court docket and one felony Justice of the Peace court docket. It revises the jurisdiction of sure statutory county courts, provides magistrates in sure counties jurisdiction in felony instances, revises the duties of sure district and county attorneys and offers public entry to the state court docket doc database — if the state Supreme Court agrees.
Additional, the legislation creates a code {of professional} duty to manage entities overseen by the Texas Forensic Science Commission, revises the fee’s investigatory energy and permits the fee to make use of state funds to coach forensic analysts.
Among different housekeeping provisions, the legislation requires that the protecting order registry embody protecting orders for victims of sexual assault or abuse, stalking or trafficking and mandates the elimination of sure vacated orders from the registry. It extends the deadline for prosecutors to reply an software for a writ of habeas corpus filed after last conviction in a felony case with out the demise penalty.
Some provisions of the invoice took effect on Sept. 1, 2021, whereas the remaining grew to become legislation on Jan. 1.
Senate Bill 1210, written by Sen. Nathan Johnson, D-Dallas, and Bettencourt, requires that constructing codes enable the usage of refrigerants, a part of air-con items, apart from hydrofluorocarbons, as long as they adjust to the federal Clean Air Act. This legislation is consistent with a motion within the United States and all over the world to section out the usage of hydrofluorocarbons, a chemical compound of hydrogen, carbon and fluorine that erode the ozone layer and contribute to world warming.
A Senate Research Center evaluation of the legislation famous that a number one business group, the Air-Conditioning, Heating and Refrigeration Institute, supported the laws. Major Texas producers together with Goodman and Chemours additionally supported it, the evaluation discovered. The analysis stated the transition away from hydrofluorocarbons consists of ramping up the manufacturing of air conditioners that use different forms of coolants, lots of which will be manufactured in Texas.
“Overall, the transition is expected to create 33,000 new manufacturing jobs and sustain more than 138,000 existing manufacturing jobs nationwide,” the evaluation famous. “A large proportion of these jobs will be in Texas, already a major manufacturing hub for these products.”
The new 88th legislative session begins Jan. 10.
story by Source link