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Senate Bill 1436 |
Senate Author: West, Royce et al. |
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Effective: See below |
House Sponsor: Creighton |
Senate Bill 1436 amends the Water Code to transfer state administration of the national flood insurance program from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) to the Texas Water Development Board (TWDB) and add to the authority of the administering agency. It expands the actions that the TWDB may take to provide aid to political subdivisions, the Texas Department of Insurance, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to include making floodplain maps and floodplain information accessible to the public; maintaining staff in TWDB field offices to encourage participation in the program through education, outreach, and coordination programs; coordinating the use of federal, state, and local grant money; and encouraging FEMA to evaluate flood-prone areas by river basin and river systems. The bill creates a floodplain management account, to be administered by the TWDB, to fund the performance of the TWDB's new functions. An amendment to the Insurance Code requires the comptroller to reallocate to the account, each state fiscal year, the first $3.05 million of insurance maintenance tax revenue from fire and allied lines sources.
The bill modifies provisions relating to political subdivisions' eligibility for and participation in the federal program to authorize them to impose penalties on landowners who violate flood insurance statutes, rules, or orders. Political subdivisions may take actions not less stringent than the requirements and criteria of the federal program, whereas under previous law they were limited to actions necessary to comply with the federal requirements and criteria.
Senate Bill 1436 amends the Education Code to authorize the board of regents of The Texas A&M University System to create and operate a spatial reference center at Texas A&M University--Corpus Christi to assume various functions relating to achieving accurate land elevation data throughout Texas.
A contingency in the bill provides that it takes effect only if the legislature appropriates at least $6.1 million to the TWDB for the FY2008-FY2009 biennium specifically for administering the national flood insurance program. Alternative provisions are included in the bill in order to modify political subdivision powers in the manner described above, if the appropriation does not materialize. That appropriation having been made, the bill takes effect September 1, 2007, except for the alternative provisions, which are void.