73R4364 DWS-D
          By Bailey                                             H.B. No. 1153
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to the location of certain utility rate hearings.
    1-3        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-4        SECTION 1.  Section 13.187(b), Water Code, is amended to read
    1-5  as follows:
    1-6        (b)  If, within 60 days after the effective date of the rate
    1-7  change, the regulatory authority receives a complaint from any
    1-8  affected municipality, or from the lesser of 1,000 or 10 percent of
    1-9  the ratepayers of the utility over whose rates the regulatory
   1-10  authority has original jurisdiction, the regulatory authority shall
   1-11  set the matter for hearing.  The regulatory authority may set the
   1-12  matter for hearing on its own motion at any time within 120 days
   1-13  after the effective date of the rate change.  If more than half of
   1-14  the ratepayers of the utility receive service in a county with a
   1-15  population of more than 2.5 million, the hearing must be held at a
   1-16  location in that county.  The hearing may be informal.  If, after
   1-17  hearing, the regulatory authority finds the rates currently being
   1-18  charged or those proposed to be charged are unreasonable or in
   1-19  violation of law, the regulatory authority shall determine the
   1-20  rates to be charged by the utility and shall fix the rates by order
   1-21  served on the utility.
   1-22        SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
   1-23  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   1-24  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
    2-1  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
    2-2  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
    2-3  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
    2-4  passage, and it is so enacted.