By Patterson                                          H.B. No. 1480
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to the use of funds contributed to a conservation
    1-3  district.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Section 201.152, Agriculture Code of Texas, is
    1-6  amended to read as follows:
    1-7        (a)  A county, city, water control and improvement district,
    1-8  drainage district, or other political subdivision may contract with
    1-9  a conservation district for the joint acquisition of rights-of-way
   1-10  or for joint construction or maintenance of dams, flood retention
   1-11  structures, canals, drains, levees, or other improvements for flood
   1-12  control and drainage related to flood control or for making the
   1-13  necessary outlets and maintaining them.  The contracts and
   1-14  agreements may contain terms, provisions, and details that the
   1-15  governing bodies of the respective political subdivisions determine
   1-16  to be necessary under the facts and circumstances.
   1-17        (b)  A county, city, water control and improvement district,
   1-18  drainage district, or other political subdivision may contribute
   1-19  funds to a conservation district for the construction or
   1-20  maintenance of canals, dams, flood retention structures, drains,
   1-21  levees, and other improvements for flood control and drainage
   1-22  related to flood control or for making the necessary outlets and
   1-23  maintaining them.  The political subdivision may contribute the
    2-1  funds regardless of whether title to the property is vested in the
    2-2  State of Texas or a conservation district if the work to be
    2-3  accomplished is for the mutual benefit of the donor and the agency
    2-4  or political subdivision having title to the property on which the
    2-5  improvements are located.
    2-6        (c)  <A county may contribute funds to a conservation district
    2-7  for the conservation district to use in matching all or part of
    2-8  funds received by the conservation district from the state for use
    2-9  in soil conservation and flood control programs.>       A county or
   2-10  other political subdivision may contribute funds to a conservation
   2-11  district for a specific purpose authorized in this chapter or for
   2-12  use in the exercise of any duty or power conferred by this chapter.
   2-13  All or part of any funds contributed by a county or other political
   2-14  subdivision to a conservation district may be used by the
   2-15  conservation district to match funds received from the state.
   2-16        (d)  For the purposes of this section, a county may expend
   2-17  permanent improvement funds or flood control funds levied in
   2-18  accordance with Article VIII, Section 1-a, of the Texas
   2-19  Constitution and Chapter 464, Acts of the 51st Legislature, Regular
   2-20  Session, 1949 (Article 7048a, Vernon's Texas Civil Statutes).  A
   2-21  political subdivision other than a county may expend the
   2-22  appropriate funds of the subdivision for the purposes of this
   2-23  section.  (V.A.C.S. Art. 1109k.)
   2-24        SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1995.
   2-25        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
    3-1  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
    3-2  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
    3-3  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
    3-4  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
    3-5  and that this act take effect and be in force from and after its
    3-6  passage, and it is so enacted.