By Corte                                              H.B. No. 2302
       74R7807 T
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to the authority of a public agency to contract for solid
    1-3  waste services.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Section 364.031, Texas Health and Safety Code, is
    1-6  amended to read as follows:
    1-7        Sec. 364.031.  Public Agency Contracts.  (a)  A public agency
    1-8  may contract with another public agency or a private contractor <a
    1-9  county> for the other public agency or private contractor <county>
   1-10  to:
   1-11              (1)  make all or part of a solid waste disposal system
   1-12  available to a public agency, a group of public agencies, or other
   1-13  persons; and
   1-14              (2)  furnish solid waste collection, transportation,
   1-15  handling, storage, or disposal services through the other public
   1-16  agency's or private contractor's <county's> system.
   1-17        (b)  The contract may:
   1-18              (1)  be for the duration agreed on by the parties;
   1-19              (2)  provide that the contract remains in effect until
   1-20  bonds issued or to be issued by either public agency <the county>
   1-21  and refunding bonds issued for those original bonds are paid;
   1-22              (3)  contain provisions to assure equitable treatment
   1-23  of parties who contract with the other public agency or private
   1-24  contractor <county> for solid waste collection, transportation,
    2-1  handling, storage, or disposal services from the same solid waste
    2-2  disposal system;
    2-3              (4)  provide for the sale or lease to or use by the
    2-4  other public agency or private contractor <county> of a solid waste
    2-5  disposal system owned or to be acquired by the public agency;
    2-6              (5)  provide that the other public agency or private
    2-7  contractor <county> will operate a solid waste disposal system
    2-8  owned or to be acquired by the public agency;
    2-9              (6)  provide that the public agency is entitled to
   2-10  continued performance of services after the amortization of the
   2-11  other public agency's or private contractor's <county's> investment
   2-12  in the disposal system during the useful life of the system on
   2-13  payment of reasonable charges, reduced to take into consideration
   2-14  the amortization; and
   2-15              (7)  contain any other provisions and requirements the
   2-16  parties <county and the public agency> determine to be appropriate
   2-17  or necessary.
   2-18        (c)  The contract must provide the method to determine the
   2-19  amount the public agency will pay to the other public agency or
   2-20  private contractor <county>.
   2-21        (d)  A municipality may provide in its contract that the
   2-22  public agency or private contractor <county> has the right to use
   2-23  the streets, alleys, and public ways and places in the municipality
   2-24  during the term of the contract.
   2-25        (e)  All contracts between municipalities and other public
   2-26  agencies or private contractors entered into prior to the effective
   2-27  date of this Act in reliance upon the authority of municipalities
    3-1  to contract for collection, transportation, handling, storage, or
    3-2  disposal of solid waste are hereby validated to the extent of the
    3-3  authority of such municipalities to so contract.
    3-4        SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
    3-5  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
    3-6  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
    3-7  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
    3-8  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.