By: Madla, Lucio S.B. No. 437
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
1-1 relating to requiring a county to report on its expenditure of
1-2 funds required to be used for highways.
1-3 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-4 SECTION 1. Subchapter C, Chapter 4, County Road and Bridge
1-5 Act (Article 6702-1, Vernon's Texas Civil Statutes), is amended by
1-6 adding Section 4.204 to read as follows:
1-7 Sec. 4.204. REPORT TO COMPTROLLER. Not later than January
1-8 30 of each year, the county auditor or, if the county does not have
1-9 a county auditor, the official with the duties of the county
1-10 auditor, shall file a report with the comptroller stating the total
1-11 amount of expenditures for county road and bridge construction,
1-12 maintenance, rehabilitation, right-of-way acquisition, and utility
1-13 construction and other appropriate road expenditures of county
1-14 funds in the preceding calendar year that are required by the
1-15 constitution or other law to be spent on public roads or highways.
1-16 The report must be in a form prescribed by the comptroller. The
1-17 distribution of money from the county and road district highway
1-18 fund under Section 4.001 of this Act may not be made to a county
1-19 unless the most recent report required by this section has been
1-20 filed with the comptroller.
1-21 SECTION 2. Subsection (a), Section 10, Chapter 88, General
1-22 Laws, Acts of the 41st Legislature, 2nd Called Session, 1929
1-23 (Article 6675a-10, Vernon's Texas Civil Statutes), is amended to
1-24 read as follows:
2-1 (a) Except as provided by Subsections (c-1), (c-2), (c-3),
2-2 and (c-4) of this section, on Monday of each week each County Tax
2-3 Collector shall deposit in the County Depository of his County to
2-4 the credit of the County Road and Bridge Fund an amount equal to
2-5 one hundred per cent (100%) of the net collections made hereunder
2-6 during the preceding week until the amount so deposited for the
2-7 current calendar year shall have reached a total sum of Sixty
2-8 Thousand Dollars ($60,000), plus Three Hundred and Fifty Dollars
2-9 ($350) for each mile of county road, not to exceed five hundred
2-10 (500) miles, maintained by the County according to the latest data
2-11 available from the State Department of Highways and Public
2-12 Transportation, plus an amount equal to five per cent (5%) of the
2-13 tax and penalties collected by the County Tax Collector under
2-14 Chapter 152, Tax Code, in the preceding calendar year, plus an
2-15 amount equal to five per cent (5%) of the tax and penalties
2-16 collected by the Comptroller of Public Accounts under Section
2-17 152.047, Tax Code, in the preceding calendar year. All of the
2-18 amount of the tax and penalties collected under Chapter 152, Tax
2-19 Code, in the preceding calendar year that is retained by a county
2-20 under this subsection shall be used for county road construction,
2-21 maintenance, and rehabilitation, for bridge construction,
2-22 maintenance, and rehabilitation, for purchase of right-of-way for
2-23 road or highway purposes, or for relocation of utilities for road
2-24 or highway purposes. <On or before January 30 of each year, each
2-25 county shall file a report, in a form promulgated by the State
2-26 Department of Highways and Public Transportation, with the State
2-27 Engineer-Director for the State Department of Highways and Public
3-1 Transportation that accurately sets forth the amounts and purposes
3-2 of all expenditures of the tax and penalties collected under
3-3 Chapter 152, Tax Code, and retained by the county under this
3-4 subsection.>
3-5 SECTION 3. The importance of this legislation and the
3-6 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
3-7 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
3-8 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
3-9 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
3-10 and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
3-11 passage, and it is so enacted.