Last week, the 81st Legislative Session passed the midway mark. As of today, there are less than two months remaining this session. Texas BOMA is aggressively pursuing its legislative agenda. At the start of the session, Texas BOMA decided on its main legislative priorities. These include opposing sales price disclosure, supporting broad-based appraisal reform, and seeking an exemption from the Margin Tax for pass-through payments from tenants to Landlords. Bills on each of these are currently making their way through the legislature.

Sales Price Disclosure

Texas BOMA opposes sales price disclosure. Sales price disclosure will lead to sales price chasing, where property values are based on the most expensive recent sales, instead of differentiating properties according to their individual characteristics. Recently, two bills related to mandatory sales price disclosure received hearings in the Texas House. Linda Kilarsky testified on behalf of Texas BOMA against HB 2257 by Rep. Helen Giddings (D-De Soto), which would have required mandatory sales price disclosure on commercial properties only. Karisa Johnson attending the hearing and dropped a card in opposition to HB 133 by Rep. Mike Villarreal (D-San Antonio), which would impose mandatory sales price disclosure on all properties. Both bills were left pending in committees.

At this time, we are working diligently to keep these sales price disclosure bills in committee. We will continue to work the issue, and will keep Texas BOMA informed.

Appraisal Reform

This session, many legislators have filed proposals to reform the property appraisal process. Of particular importance are those bills filed by Rep. John Otto (R-Dayton). Coming into session, Rep. Otto planned to impose broad-based property appraisal reform in a single bill. However, because of concerns about costly amendments being added to these bills, Rep. Otto instead decided to put his appraisal reform measures into separate bills. Some of these bills received a hearing in the past week; others are set for hearings in the near future. We will continue to work with our allies on this issue.

Margin Tax Exemption

Currently, many commercial landlords pass various expenses through to their tenants, as contractually authorized in their leases. However, even though the landlord receives no benefit from those tenant payments, the amounts are included in the landlord's gross income for the purposes of the Margin Tax. Rep. Brian McCall (R-Plano) and Senator Florence Shapiro (R-Plano) have each filed bills to exempt flow-through payments from the Margin Tax. We are working closely with their offices on these matters. While it is an uphill fight to receive this exclusion, we are pushing hard for it.

We will continue to work on these and other Texas BOMA issues, and will keep you apprised of developments.

Legislative Alert: Action Requested!

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