By:  Luna                                              S.B. No. 676
       73R5536 DWS-D
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to the service area for operation of a municipal drainage
    1-3  system and collection of drainage charges.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Section 402.044(8), Local Government Code, is
    1-6  amended to read as follows:
    1-7              (8)  "Service area" means the municipal boundaries and
    1-8  any other land areas outside the municipal boundaries which, as a
    1-9  result of topography or hydraulics, contribute overland flow into
   1-10  the watersheds served by the drainage system of a municipality;
   1-11  provided, however, that in no event may a service area extend
   1-12  farther than the boundaries of a municipality's current
   1-13  extraterritorial jurisdiction, nor, except as provided by Section
   1-14  402.045(f), may a service area of one municipality extend into the
   1-15  boundaries of another incorporated town, city, or municipality.
   1-16  The service area is to be established in the ordinance establishing
   1-17  the drainage utility.  <Provided, that no municipality shall extend
   1-18  a service area outside of its municipal boundaries except a
   1-19  municipality of more than 400,000 population located in one or more
   1-20  counties of less than 600,000 population according to the most
   1-21  recent federal census.>
   1-22        SECTION 2.  Section 402.045, Local Government Code, is
   1-23  amended by adding Subsection (f) to read as follows:
   1-24        (f)  A municipality may extend its service area into the
    2-1  boundaries of another municipality if, before the extension, water
    2-2  from the municipality to which the service area is to be extended
    2-3  regularly drains into the drainage system of the municipality
    2-4  extending its service area.  A municipality that extends its
    2-5  service area under this subsection may:
    2-6              (1)  take any action to provide and operate a drainage
    2-7  system within the other municipality that it could take in
    2-8  providing and operating a drainage system within its own
    2-9  boundaries; and
   2-10              (2)  charge a lot or tract of benefitted property in
   2-11  the other municipality drainage charges as provided by this
   2-12  subchapter.
   2-13        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
   2-14  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   2-15  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   2-16  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   2-17  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
   2-18  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
   2-19  passage, and it is so enacted.