[Congressional Bills 106th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 4123 Introduced in House (IH)]







106th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 4123

 To modify the project for flood control, Yazoo Backwater Area, Yazoo 
  Basin, Mississippi, to authorize the Secretary of the Army to make 
 payments to local interests as compensation for certain reductions in 
                          local tax revenues.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             March 29, 2000

 Mr. Thompson of Mississippi introduced the following bill; which was 
     referred to the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To modify the project for flood control, Yazoo Backwater Area, Yazoo 
  Basin, Mississippi, to authorize the Secretary of the Army to make 
 payments to local interests as compensation for certain reductions in 
                          local tax revenues.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Yazoo Tax Base Protection Act''.

SEC. 2. PROJECT MODIFICATION.

    (a) In General.--The project for flood control, Yazoo Backwater 
Area, Yazoo Basin, Mississippi, authorized by section 3 of the Flood 
Control Act approved August 18, 1941 (55 Stat. 642-643), is modified to 
authorize the Secretary of the Army to make annual payments, during the 
term of the project, to local interests in the project area as 
compensation for reductions in the ad valorem tax revenues collected by 
the local interests that are attributable to purchases of reforestation 
easements by the Secretary for the project.
    (b) Amount of Payments.--An annual payment made to a local interest 
in a calendar year under subsection (a) shall equal--
            (1) the amount of ad valorem tax revenues that would have 
        been collected by the local interest in the calendar year if 
        lands for which the Secretary has purchased a reforestation 
        easement for the project had the same use that the lands had 
        prior to the purchase of the easement; less
            (2) the amount of ad valorem tax revenues collected by the 
        local interest in the calendar year.
    (c) Definitions.--In this section, the following definitions apply:
            (1) Reforestation easement.--The term ``reforestation 
        easement'' means an easement on open agricultural land that 
        restricts the future use of the land to woodlands.
            (2) Project area.--The term ``project area'' means land in 
        the Humphreys, Issaquena, Sharkey, Warren, Washington, and 
        Yazoo counties, Mississippi, located at or below the 100-year 
        frequency flood elevation.
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