Bill Caption

Relating to providing information to the public and to purchasers of real property regarding the impact of military installations.  

Fiscal Notes

From the Legislative Budget Board: no significant fiscal implication to the state is anticipated.

Bill Analysis

SB 775 would amend the Local Government Code to require a county and any municipality where a military instillation is located make the information from the most recent Air Installation Compatible Use Zone Study or Joint Land Use Study available on the local government entity’s website. Next, a person selling property would be required to disclose that the property may be located near a military installation and affected by high noise or air installation compatible use zones and where to access relating information on the local government entity’s website.    

Vote Recommendation Notes

We oppose this bill on the grounds of personal responsibility, free markets, and limited government. Prospective homeowners should do their due diligence before buying to determine whether a home purchase is right for them. Taking into account noise related factors is a basic part of this decision making process. Home buyers do not need the state to mandate that someone else do this on their behalf when they are capable of taking on this responsibility themselves. It is outside of the scope of limited government to add yet another disclosure mandate on sellers of homes, particularly when that disclosure could make a relatively minor issue appear to a prospective buyer to be a bigger deal than it is. For these reasons we oppose SB 775.