BILL ANALYSIS

Senate Research Center	S.B. 2168
	By: Watson
	Transportation
	4/1/2019
	As Filed

AUTHOR'S / SPONSOR'S STATEMENT OF INTENT

A small number of Texas counties have suffered repeated disasters in a short period of time, draining local government resources and reducing tax revenue streams.

Statute requires local communities to provide matching funds for right-of-way acquisition and utility relocation for Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) projects. Statute further authorizes TxDOT to offer economically disadvantaged counties a reduced local match requirement.

S.B. 2168 would create an additional set of criteria for counties devastated by federally declared disasters to participate in the economic disadvantaged counties program for a period of time. These criteria are: a county must have been designated an economically disadvantaged county in the past six years and been included in a minimum of five federally declared disasters within that same time frame.

As proposed, S.B. 2168 amends current law relating to relief from local matching funds requirement for certain counties.

RULEMAKING AUTHORITY

This bill does not expressly grant any additional rulemaking authority to a state officer, institution, or agency.

SECTION BY SECTION ANALYSIS

SECTION 1. Amends Section 222.053, Transportation Code, by adding Subsections (a-1) and (a-2), as follows:

(a-1) Defines "economically disadvantaged county" for purposes of this section.

(a-2) Requires the adjustment to the local matching funds requirement, for a county described by Subsection (a-1), to be equivalent to the highest adjustment rate set in the last year the county was considered to meet the criteria described by Subsection (a).

SECTION 2. Effective date: upon passage or September 1, 2019. �