BILL ANALYSIS C.S.H.B. 2970 By: McCoulskey 5-3-95 Committee Report (Substituted) BACKGROUND Currently in the state of Texas, unincorporated areas have limited access to an adequate purified water supply and sanitary sewer facilities. The law as it stands now does not allow counties to incur debt to construct water and sewer facilities. This bill seeks to remedy that situation. PURPOSE If enacted, this bill would allow counties to address a public health crisis as determined by state and local health authorities. This would enable a county to provide water and sanitary sewer in the unincorporated areas of the county and with the city's consent if an area is in the ETJ of a city. RULEMAKING AUTHORITY It is the committee's opinion that this bill does not grant any additional rulemaking authority to a state officer, institution, or agency. SECTION BY SECTION ANALYSIS SECTION 1. Adds Section 412.015, Subchapter B of the Local Government Code, to read as follows: Section 412.015 COUNTY WATER AND SEWER FACILITY. (a) Allows a county to operate a water or sewer utility systems to serve an unincorporated area of the county in the same manner, and under the same regulations, as a municipality under Chapter 402. (b) Allows the county to issue bonds payable solely from the revenue generated by the water or sewer utility system and disallows a county to issue bonds payable from ad valorem taxes. (c) Grants the county the use of eminent domain in order to provide service. (d) Disallows a county from providing water or sewer service to an area in the extraterritorial jurisdiction of a municipality or an area to which a holder of a certificate of public convenience and necessity must provide service under Section 13.250, Water Code, without the consent of the municipality or the holder of the certificate. SECTION 2. Effective date. SECTION 3. Emergency clause. COMPARISON OF ORIGINAL TO SUBSTITUTE The committee substitute puts the original bill in legislative council draft form. In subsection (a), the committee substitute specifies that the county may operate the system in the same manner as a municipality under Chapter 402. The committee substitute adds clarifying language in subsection (d) regarding where the county may not provide service. The committee substitute deletes subsection (e) found in the original bill. SUMMARY OF COMMITTEE ACTION HB 2970 was considered by the County Affairs Committee in a public hearing on 4/26/95. Representative McCoulsky opened. The committee considered a complete committee substitute. The following person testified for HB 2970: Grady Prestage, representing himself. The following person testified neutrally on HB 2970: Tom Brown, representing the Texas Water Development Board. Representative McCoulsky closed. HB 2970 was left pending. HB 2970 was considered in a public hearing on 5/3/95. The committee considered a complete committee substitute. The committee substitute was adopted without objection. HB 2970 was reported favorably, as substituted, with the recommendation that it do pass and be printed, by the record vote of 6 ayes, 0 nays, 0 pnv, 3 absent.