By Saunders                                           H.B. No. 2433
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to equalizing the municipal solid waste disposal fee.
    1-3        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-4        SECTION 1.  Section 361.013, Health and Safety Code, is
    1-5  amended to read as follows:
    1-6        Sec. 361.013.  Solid Waste Disposal and Transportation Fees.
    1-7  (a)  Except as provided by Subsection (e), the department shall
    1-8  charge a fee on solid waste that is disposed of within this state.
    1-9  The fee is $1.50 <the greater of 50 cents> per ton if measured by
   1-10  weight or if measured by volume is, for compacted solid waste, 50
   1-11  cents per cubic yard or, for uncompacted solid waste, 30 <10> cents
   1-12  per cubic yard received for disposal at a landfill.  The department
   1-13  shall set the fee for sludge or similar waste applied to the land
   1-14  for beneficial use on a dry weight basis and for solid waste
   1-15  received at an incinerator or a shredding and composting facility
   1-16  at half the fee set for solid waste received for disposal at a
   1-17  landfill.  The department may charge comparable fees for other
   1-18  means of solid waste disposal that are used.
   1-19        (b)  The department may raise or lower the fees established
   1-20  under Subsection (a) in accordance with department spending levels
   1-21  established by the legislature.
   1-22        (c)  The department shall charge an annual registration fee
   1-23  to a transporter of solid waste who is required to register with
    2-1  the department under rules adopted by the board of health.  The
    2-2  board of health by rule shall adopt a fee schedule.  The fee shall
    2-3  be reasonably related to the volume, the type, or both the volume
    2-4  and type of waste transported.  The registration fee charged under
    2-5  this subsection may not be less than $25 or more than $500.
    2-6        (d)  The operator of each municipal solid waste facility
    2-7  shall maintain records and report to the department annually on the
    2-8  amount of solid waste that the facility transfers, processes,
    2-9  stores, treats, or disposes of. Each transporter required to
   2-10  register with the department shall maintain records and report to
   2-11  the department annually on the amount of solid waste that the
   2-12  transporter transports.  The board of health by rule shall
   2-13  establish procedures for recordkeeping and reporting required under
   2-14  this subsection.
   2-15        (e)  The department may not charge a fee under Subsection (a)
   2-16  for scrap tires that are deposited in a designated recycling
   2-17  collection area at a landfill permitted by the commission or the
   2-18  department or licensed by a county or by a political subdivision
   2-19  exercising the authority granted by Section 361.165 and that are
   2-20  temporarily stored for eventual recycling, reuse, or energy
   2-21  recovery.
   2-22        SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
   2-23  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   2-24  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   2-25  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
    3-1  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
    3-2  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
    3-3  passage, and it is so enacted.