Amends TCA Title 68, Chapter 205.

This bill revises provisions of the Commercial Property Assessed Clean Energy and Resilience Act (C-PACER), which was enacted in 2021 (see Public Chapter 138 (Senate Bill 795, for details), as follows: (1) Under present law, terms of a C-PACER program must include, among other things, a requirement that the amount of the assessment plus any existing indebtedness on the property does not: (A) Exceed 90 percent of the fair market value of the property as determined by an appraiser, with the exception that properties qualified under the federal low-income housing tax credit program are exempt from this requirement; and (B) Exceed 25 percent of the fair market value of the property as determined by an appraiser. This bill revises the above provision so that provision for including "any existing indebtedness on the property" only applies to the provision described in item (1)(A) above. (2) This bill removes the requirement that the terms of a C-PACER program include a statement explaining the manner in which property will be assessed and how assessments will be collected. (3) Under present law, the Act defines "commercial property" as privately owned commercial industrial, industrial or agricultural real property; and privately owned residential real property consisting of five or more dwellings units, including property owned by nonprofit, charitable, or religious organization. This bill adds to the definition of commercial property for purposes of the Act, property owned by the state or a local government entity, but leased to a privately owned entity. (4) This bill revises who may be an administrator under the Act and revises various provisions to reflect authority of the administrator to perform certain functions. (5) Under present law, a local government may choose to bill, collect, and enforce the C-PACER assessment and lien, subject to the certain guidelines, including that the local government may enforce the assessment lien in the same manner that a property tax lien against commercial property is enforced by the local government as follows: (A) Delinquent installments of the assessment incur interest and penalties in the same manner as delinquent property taxes; and (B) In an enforcement or foreclosure action, assessments not yet due must not be accelerated or eliminated by foreclosure, including the foreclosure of a property tax. This bill adds, in regard to (5)(B), that delinquent interest in accordance with the financing agreement must be included in the enforcement or foreclosure action. This bill also adds to the above provisions that the local government may apply the proceeds of an enforcement action in the same manner as it applies the proceeds from enforcement actions for delinquent property taxes, including the local government's right to apply the proceeds to the payment of the actuals costs of the enforcement action. ON MARCH 10, 2022, THE SENATE ADOPTED AMENDMENT #1 AND PASSED SENATE BILL 1990, AS AMENDED. AMENDMENT #1 adds a requirement that, prior to approval of financing on a leasehold owned by this state or a local government, but leased to a privately owned entity (such as an industrial housing development corporation or housing authority), the consent of this state or the local government must be obtained. A change to the leasehold must be approved by this state or the local government, as applicable. This amendment also requires that the state or a local government must be held harmless if the privately owned entity to which the leasehold is leased defaults on a financing agreement for a leasehold changed in accordance with this amendment.