HB 1799

As described below, this bill revises obligations of the comptroller of the treasury ("comptroller"") with regard to certain reporting. TELECOMMUNICATIONS JOINT VENTURES Present law generally authorizes a cooperative or county or municipality, or any entity authorized by law to act on a county or municipality's behalf, to participate in a telecommunications joint venture that is created to provide broadband services to areas within the jurisdiction of the municipality, c ounty, or cooperative that has been determined to be a historically unserved area, meaning that the area does not have access to broadband internet services, has been an area developed for residential use f or more than five years, and is outside the service area of a video or cable service local franchise holder or the franchise area of a holder of a state-issued certificate of franchise authority. The comptroller must provide a report to the general assembly not later than January 31 annually on the status of the provision of broadband services in accordance with this law . This bill removes the report requirement. HELPING HEROES ACT OF 2008 Present law establishes the "" Helping Heroes Act of 2008, which creates a scholarship program that provides a grant to certain veterans who are students who are enrolled in at least six semester hours in a semester for a maximum of eight semesters. The comptroller, through the comptroller's office of research and education accountability, must review and study the scholarship program to determine the effectiveness of the program in educating veterans. The study must be done in the fifth year of the progr am and every four years thereafter. The comptroller must report the findings and conclusions of the study to the speakers of the senate and house of representatives and the chairs of the education committees of the senate and the house of representatives. This bill removes the study and report requirement. TAX RELIEF Present law provides property tax relief for e lderly low-income homeowners, disabled homeowners, and disabled veterans homeowners. The comptroller must annually (i) estimate the cost of the tax relief program at the current income limit, (ii) estimate the annual income limit for eligibility likely to maintain the property tax relief program at a constant level of expenditure, and (iii) provide these estimates to the department of finance and administration as part of the budget preparation process and, at the same time, provide these estimates to the members of the general assembly. This bill rewrites (ii) above to, instead, only require the comptroller to annually estimate the cost of the tax relief program under current program parameters, instead of estimat ing the annual income limit for eligibility likely to maintain the property tax relief program at a constant level of expenditure ."