HB 980

This bill authorizes a tourism development authority owning a tract of real property, of which all or any portion is contained within the incorporated territory of a municipality, to petition the municipality to deannex the property if the deannexation does not create an area o f unincorporated territory that is completely surrounded by municipal boundaries. The petition must include a map of the plat seeking deannexation. Upon receiving the petition, this bill requires the municipality to determine the debt amount owed pursua nt to existing law, if any, within 30 days. Existing law generally authorizes a municipality to continue to levy and collect taxes on deannexed property in the excluded territory to pay the excluded territory's proportion of debt newly contracted after th e territory was annexed and prior to the exclusion. The deannexation of the property becomes operative 60 days after receipt of the petition by the municipality. Except for responsibility for debt newly contracted after the territory was annexed and pri or to the surrender of jurisdiction, this bill provides that all municipal jurisdiction ceases over the territory excluded from the municipality's corporate limits on the operative date of the contraction accomplished through the petition.