By McCoulskey                                         H.B. No. 2525
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to authorizing the issuance of short term obligations by
    1-3  certain hospital authorities.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Section 1(1), Chapter 656, Acts of the 68th
    1-6  Legislature, Regular Session, 1983 (Article 717q, Vernon's Texas
    1-7  Civil Statutes) is amended to read as follows:
    1-8              (1)  "Issuer" means (A) any incorporated city operating
    1-9  under a home-rule charter adopted pursuant to Article XI, Section
   1-10  5, of the Constitution of Texas having a population according to
   1-11  the latest federal decennial census of 90,000 or more and having
   1-12  outstanding long-term debt secured by the revenues of the public
   1-13  utility for which the obligations are being issued which is rated
   1-14  by a nationally recognized rating agency for municipal securities
   1-15  in one of the four highest rating categories for long-term
   1-16  obligations; (B) any conservation and reclamation district created
   1-17  and organized as a river authority under and pursuant to Article
   1-18  III, Section 52, or Article XVI, Section 59, of the Constitution of
   1-19  Texas and by an act of the legislature of the State of Texas; (C)
   1-20  any joint powers agency organized and operating pursuant to Chapter
   1-21  166, Acts of the 63rd Legislature, Regular Session, 1973 (Article
   1-22  1435a, Revised Statutes); (D) any metropolitan rapid transit
   1-23  authority or regional transportation authority created, organized,
    2-1  and operating pursuant to Chapter 141, Acts of the 63rd
    2-2  Legislature, Regular Session, 1973 (Article 1118x, Revised
    2-3  Statutes) or Chapter 683, Acts of the 66th Legislature, Regular
    2-4  Session, 1979 (Article 1118y, Revised Statutes); (E) any
    2-5  conservation and reclamation district organized or operating as a
    2-6  navigation district under and pursuant to Article III, Section 52,
    2-7  or Article XVI, Section 59, of the Constitution of Texas; (F) any
    2-8  district organized or operating under and pursuant to Article XVI,
    2-9  Section 59, of the Constitution of Texas which has all or part of
   2-10  two or more incorporated cities within its boundaries; (G) agencies
   2-11  of the State of Texas (including the governing boards of the state
   2-12  institutions of higher education); (H) any hospital authority in a
   2-13  county with a population of more than 2 million, or in a county
   2-14  that is included, in whole or in part, in a federal standard
   2-15  metropolitan statistical area that includes a county with a
   2-16  population of more than 2 million, according to the most recent
   2-17  federal census, that was created or is operating under Chapter 262,
   2-18  Health and Safety Code, or Chapter 264, Health and Safety Code; and
   2-19  (I) any nonprofit corporation organized to exercise the powers of a
   2-20  higher education authority under Subsection (e), Section 53.47,
   2-21  Education Code.
   2-22        SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
   2-23  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   2-24  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   2-25  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
    3-1  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
    3-2  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
    3-3  passage, and it is so enacted.