1. (a) In this section, "indigent defense compensation expenditures" for a tax year means the difference between:

   1. (1) the amount paid by a county in the period beginning on July 1 of the tax year preceding the tax year for which the tax is adopted and ending on June 30 of the tax year for which the tax is adopted to:

      1. (A) provide appointed counsel for indigent individuals in criminal or civil proceedings in accordance with the schedule of fees adopted under Article 26.05, Code of Criminal Procedure; and
      2. (B) fund the operations of a public defender's office under Article 26.044, Code of Criminal Procedure; and
   2. (2) the amount of any state grants received by the county during that period for those purposes.

2. (b) If a county's indigent defense compensation expenditures exceed the amount of those expenditures for the preceding tax year, the no-new-revenue maintenance and operations rate for the county is increased by the lesser of the rates computed according to the following formulas:

   (Current Tax Year's Indigent Defense Compensation Expenditures - Preceding Tax Year's Indigent Defense Compensation Expenditures) / (Current Total Value - New Property Value)

   or

   (Preceding Tax Year's Indigent Defense Compensation Expenditures x 0.05) / (Current Total Value - New Property Value)

3. (c) The county shall include a notice of the increase in the no-new-revenue maintenance and operations rate provided by this section, including a description and the amount of indigent defense compensation expenditures, in the information published under Section 26.04(e) and, as applicable, in the notice prescribed by Section 26.06 or 26.061.

Added by Acts 2019, 86th Leg., R.S., Ch. 944 (S.B. 2), Sec. 43, eff. January 1, 2020.

Acts 2021, 87th Leg., R.S., Ch. 477 (H.B. 295), Sec. 4, eff. September 1, 2021.