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Plano staff briefs council on DART reform, hotel financing tool and foreign‑ownership bill in Austin
Summary
City of Plano legislative staff reviewed priority bills being tracked in Austin, including a committee substitute affecting Dallas Area Rapid Transit debt, a qualified‑hotel project financing tool and Senate Bill 17 on foreign ownership of certain Texas land; the briefing was informational and no council action was taken.
Andrew Fortune, the city’s director of policy and government relations, told the Plano City Council the city is tracking roughly 1,800 bills this legislative session and has eight priority items the council previously approved. City staff provided an update on a committee substitute to DART reform, a state tool for qualified hotel projects and the status of SB 17 addressing certain foreign purchases of Texas land.
Fortune said the DART committee substitute would limit future debt issuances tied to cities to a three‑quarters‑cent pledge, fast‑track repayment of existing debt and enshrine a 25 percent rebate program to allow cities to claw back revenue for local mobility needs. He described the substitute as “restraining” future issuances without cutting the one‑cent sales tax that funds DART and said sponsors in both chambers from both parties have signed on and the bill was expected to move through committee this week.
The staff update also covered a qualified‑hotel projects bill that would allow cities to capture a state portion of hotel tax revenue for projects inside a defined zone; Fortune said earlier proposals included a 1,000‑foot capture zone that may be removed and that city staff continue to press for Plano’s inclusion in the statutory authorization. On SB 17, Fortune said the bill as written would prohibit purchases of certain property in Texas by companies tied to a short federal list of “adversarial” governments (he named China, Russia, North Korea and Iran), would allow green‑card holders to buy property, and had been voted out of the Senate and reported favorably from a House committee.
Council members thanked staff for their work; several elected officials praised Fortune and staff for following long‑running DART reform conversations and for the department’s time in Austin. The discussion was informational; no action or formal council direction was recorded in the meeting minutes.
