By Brimer H.B. No. 1082
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
1-1 AN ACT
1-2 relating to disannexation by a general law municipality.
1-3 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-4 SECTION 1. Section 43, Local Government Code is amended by
1-5 adding Section 43.1412 to read as follows:
1-6 Section 43.1412. DISANNEXATION FOR FAILURE TO PROVIDE
1-7 SERVICES TO A HORSE RACING FACILITY. (a) Any horse racing
1-8 facility operating pursuant to a Class I or Class II license issued
1-9 by the Texas Racing Commission and which is located partially
1-10 within the corporate limits and partially within the
1-11 extraterritorial jurisdiction of a general law city of the State of
1-12 Texas and which on the effective date of this Act is receiving
1-13 water or sewer service which is actually provided by the use of a
1-14 treatment plant located in a municipality other than the general
1-15 law city in which the horse racing facility is located, shall have
1-16 the right to have those portions of the racing facility that lie
1-17 within the corporate limits of the city disannexed from the general
1-18 law city at its request.
1-19 (b) A horse racing facility possessing a Class I or Class II
1-20 license from the Texas Racing Commission may exercise this right by
1-21 giving written notice of its desire to be disannexed to the mayor
1-22 of the general law city within which the track or a portion of the
1-23 track lies. The notice shall state that the horse racing facility
2-1 desires to be disannexed from said city. Said notice shall be
2-2 signed by the owners of said horse racing facility or their
2-3 authorized designee, and shall describe the area to be disannexed,
2-4 and have a plat or other likeness of the area attached. The notice
2-5 shall be given to the mayor by certified mail and a copy of said
2-6 notice shall be delivered to the county judge of the county in
2-7 which said racing facility and general law city are located at the
2-8 same time and in the same manner that notice is provided to the
2-9 mayor of the general law city from which disannexation is sought.
2-10 Notice to the mayor shall occur as a matter of law if the written
2-11 notification is delivered by United States mail to the city hall of
2-12 the general law city addressed to the mayor of said city.
2-13 (c) It shall be the duty of the Board of Aldermen to
2-14 disannex the area described by the thirty-first (31st) day
2-15 following the date upon which written notice is given to the mayor
2-16 and county judge.
2-17 (d) A horse racing facility which secures disannexation of
2-18 some or all of its area from a general law city pursuant to this
2-19 provision is not released from its pro rata portion of any
2-20 indebtedness owed by the municipality at the time of the
2-21 disannexation. The governing body shall continue to levy a
2-22 property tax each year on the property in the area at the same rate
2-23 that is levied on other property in the municipality until the
2-24 taxes collected from the area equal its pro rata share of the
2-25 indebtedness. Those taxes may be charged only with the cost of
3-1 levying and collecting the taxes, and the taxes shall be applied
3-2 exclusively to the payment of the pro rata share of the
3-3 indebtedness. This subsection does not prevent the owners of the
3-4 racing facility from paying in full at any time their pro rata
3-5 share of the indebtedness.
3-6 SECTION 2. The importance of this legislation and the
3-7 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
3-8 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
3-9 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
3-10 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.