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.