By:  Linebarger                                       H.B. No. 2125
       73R5812 CAG-D
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to the lease or transfer of property owned by a political
    1-3  subdivision to certain private for-profit and nonprofit
    1-4  organizations.
    1-5        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-6        SECTION 1.  Section 272.001, Local Government Code, is
    1-7  amended by amending Subsection (a) and adding Subsection (h) to
    1-8  read as follows:
    1-9        (a)  Except for the types of land and interests covered by
   1-10  Subsection (b), <or> (g), or (h), before land owned by a political
   1-11  subdivision of the state may be sold or exchanged for other land,
   1-12  notice to the general public of the offer of the land for sale or
   1-13  exchange must be published in a newspaper of general circulation in
   1-14  either the county in which the land is located or, if there is no
   1-15  such newspaper, in an adjoining county.  The notice must include a
   1-16  description of the land, including its location, and the procedure
   1-17  by which sealed bids to purchase the land or offers to exchange the
   1-18  land may be submitted.  The notice must be published on two
   1-19  separate dates and the sale or exchange may not be made until after
   1-20  the 14th day after the date of the second publication.
   1-21        (h)  A political subdivision that acquires land or a real
   1-22  property interest with funds received from a federal or state grant
   1-23  may lease or convey the land or interest, without the solicitation
   1-24  of bids, to a private, for-profit entity or a nonprofit entity that
    2-1  is also a beneficiary of a state or federal grant or that is a
    2-2  party to a contract with the state or federal government, if the
    2-3  land or interest will be used by the private, for-profit entity or
    2-4  the nonprofit entity in carrying out the purpose of the entity's
    2-5  grant or contract.  To ensure that the land or interest is used for
    2-6  that purpose, the political subdivision shall monitor the use made
    2-7  of the land or interest after its lease or conveyance.    The land
    2-8  or interest may be leased or conveyed without the solicitation of
    2-9  bids, if the political subdivision adopts a resolution stating the
   2-10  conditions and circumstances for the lease or conveyance and the
   2-11  public purpose that will be achieved by the lease or conveyance.
   2-12        SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
   2-13  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   2-14  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   2-15  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   2-16  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
   2-17  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
   2-18  passage, and it is so enacted.