By Brimer                                             H.B. No. 2199
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to the appellate jurisdiction of the Texas Water
    1-3  Commission.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Subsection (j), Section 13.043, Water Code, is
    1-6  amended to read as follows:
    1-7        (j)  In an appeal under this section, the commission shall
    1-8  ensure that every rate made, demanded, or received by any retail
    1-9  public utility or by any two or more retail public utilities
   1-10  jointly shall be just and reasonable.  Rates shall not be
   1-11  unreasonably preferential, prejudicial, or discriminatory but shall
   1-12  be sufficient, equitable, and consistent in application to each
   1-13  class of customers.  The commission shall use a methodology that
   1-14  preserves the financial integrity of the retail public utility.
   1-15  The commission may consider the terms of any wholesale water or
   1-16  sewer service agreement in an appellate rate proceeding.
   1-17        SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1993.
   1-18        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
   1-19  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   1-20  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   1-21  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   1-22  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.