By Shields                                            H.B. No. 2258
       74R1857 DRH-D
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to the authority of a municipality to impose a fee for
    1-3  municipal drainage.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Section 402.053, Local Government Code, is
    1-6  amended by adding Subsection (e) to read as follows:
    1-7        (e)  The governing body of a municipality may not charge a
    1-8  lot or tract of benefitted property a fee for drainage service
    1-9  under this subchapter if the owner of the lot or tract takes
   1-10  reasonable actions designed to prevent significant runoff from the
   1-11  property.  The governing body of a municipality shall charge a lot
   1-12  or tract of benefitted property a reduced fee for drainage service
   1-13  if the owner of the lot or tract has taken steps that reduce the
   1-14  flow of runoff from the property.
   1-15        SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
   1-16  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   1-17  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   1-18  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   1-19  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.