Sec. 321.106. FIRE CONTROL DISTRICT TAX. (a) Subject to an election held in accordance with Chapter 344, Local Government Code, a municipality in which a fire control, prevention, and emergency medical services district is established shall adopt a sales and use tax in the area of the district for the purpose of financing the operation of the fire control, prevention, and emergency medical services district. The revenue from the tax may be used only for the purpose of financing the operation of the fire control, prevention, and emergency medical services district. The proposition for adopting a tax under this section and the proposition for creation of a fire control, prevention, and emergency medical services district shall be submitted at the same election. For purposes of Section 321.101, a tax under this section is not an additional sales and use tax.
(b) A tax adopted for a district under this section for financing the operation of the district may be decreased in increments of one-eighth of one percent by order of the board of directors of the district.
(c) The rate of a tax adopted for a district under this section may be increased in increments of one-eighth of one percent, not to exceed a total tax rate of one-half percent, for financing the operation of the fire control, prevention, and emergency medical services district by order of the board of directors of the fire control, prevention, and emergency medical services district if approved by a majority of the qualified voters voting at an election called by the board and held in the district on the question of increasing the tax rate. At the election, the ballot shall be printed to provide for voting for or against the proposition: "The increase of the __________ (name of the municipality that created the district) Fire Control, Prevention, and Emergency Medical Services District sales and use tax rate to ______ percent." If there is an increase or decrease under this section in the rate of a tax imposed under this section, the new rate takes effect on the first day of the next calendar quarter after the expiration of one calendar quarter after the comptroller receives notice of the increase or decrease. However, if the comptroller notifies the president of the board of directors of the district in writing within 10 days after receipt of the notification that the comptroller requires more time to implement reporting and collection procedures, the comptroller may delay implementation of the rate change for one calendar quarter, and the new rate takes effect on the first day of the calendar quarter that follows the elapsed quarter.
(d) The comptroller shall remit to the municipality amounts collected at the rate imposed under this section as part of the regular allocation of other municipal tax revenue collected by the comptroller. The municipality shall remit that amount to the district. A retailer may not be required to use allocation and reporting procedures in the collection of taxes under this section that are different from the procedures that retailers use in the collection of other sales and use taxes under this chapter. An item, transaction, or service that is taxable in a municipality under a sales or use tax authorized by another section of this chapter is taxable under this section. An item, transaction, or service that is not taxable in a municipality under a sales or use tax authorized by another section of this chapter is not taxable under this section.
(e) If, in a municipality where a fire control, prevention, and emergency medical services district is composed of the whole municipality, a municipal sales and use tax or a municipal sales and use tax rate increase for the purpose of financing a fire control, prevention, and emergency medical services district is approved, the municipality is responsible for distributing to the district that portion of the municipal sales and use tax revenue received from the comptroller that is to be used for the purposes of financing the fire control, prevention, and emergency medical services district. Not later than the 10th day after the date the municipality receives money under this section from the comptroller, the municipality shall make the distribution in the proportion that the fire control, prevention, and emergency medical services portion of the tax rate bears to the total sales and use tax rate of the municipality. The amounts distributed to a fire control, prevention, and emergency medical services district are not considered to be sales and use tax revenue for the purpose of property tax reduction and computation of the municipal tax rate under Section 26.041.
(f) For purposes of the tax imposed under this section, a reference in this chapter to the municipality as the territory in which the tax or an incident of the tax applies means only the territory located in the fire control, prevention, and emergency medical services district, if that district is composed of an area less than an entire municipality.
(g) The comptroller may adopt rules and the municipality's governing body may adopt orders to administer this section.
Added by Acts 2001, 77th Leg., ch. 1295, Sec. 2, eff. June 1, 2001.