1-1  By:  Galloway                                          S.B. No. 731
    1-2        (In the Senate - Filed February 23, 1995; February 23, 1995,
    1-3  read first time and referred to Committee on Intergovernmental
    1-4  Relations; April 5, 1995, reported adversely, with favorable
    1-5  Committee Substitute by the following vote:  Yeas 10, Nays 0;
    1-6  April 5, 1995, sent to printer.)
    1-7  COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE FOR S.B. No. 731                 By:  Galloway
    1-8                         A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-9                                AN ACT
   1-10  relating to the authority to dissolve the Oak Ridge Municipal
   1-11  Utility District and the assumption of its assets and obligations
   1-12  by a municipality.
   1-13        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
   1-14        SECTION 1.  Chapter 615, Acts of the 60th Legislature,
   1-15  Regular Session, 1967, is amended by adding Section 25 to read as
   1-16  follows:
   1-17        Sec. 25.  (a)  The district's board of directors may issue an
   1-18  order that dissolves the district after:
   1-19              (1)  the board calls and conducts an election to
   1-20  authorize dissolution of the district in the manner provided by
   1-21  Chapter 54, Water Code, for an election to approve issuance of
   1-22  bonds;
   1-23              (2)  a majority of the resident electors who vote in an
   1-24  election authorized by Subdivision (1) vote for the proposition:
   1-25  "The dissolution of the district";
   1-26              (3)  the board creates a special reserve fund
   1-27  consisting of a sum certain from money contained in the district's
   1-28  bond retirement fund; and
   1-29              (4)  a qualified municipality issues an ordinance by
   1-30  which, on a specified date after the dissolution of the district
   1-31  that is not later than the 90th day after the date an election is
   1-32  held under Subdivision (1), the municipality agrees to:
   1-33                    (A)  assume the district's debts, liabilities,
   1-34  and obligations;
   1-35                    (B)  assume ownership of the district's assets
   1-36  and facilities;
   1-37                    (C)  perform the district's functions and provide
   1-38  all services previously provided by the district; and
   1-39                    (D)  use the money in the district's special
   1-40  reserve fund created under Subdivision (3) only to retire debt
   1-41  incurred by the district, unless another purpose is approved by at
   1-42  least four members of the municipality's governing body.
   1-43        (b)  A municipality is qualified to assume the district's
   1-44  debts, liabilities, and obligations and assume ownership of the
   1-45  district's assets and facilities if:
   1-46              (1)  the municipality has, at the time of assumption, a
   1-47  "bbb" or better investment grade credit rating from Standard &
   1-48  Poor's Investor Services, Inc., on its outstanding bonds, if any;
   1-49  and
   1-50              (2)  the combined debt principal of the municipality
   1-51  and the district does not exceed 12 percent of the total assessed
   1-52  valuation of the municipality's property, as determined by the most
   1-53  recent valuation certified by the applicable county appraisal
   1-54  district.
   1-55        (c)  The municipality that assumes the district's debts,
   1-56  liabilities, and obligations and assumes ownership of the
   1-57  district's assets and facilities shall levy an ad valorem tax for
   1-58  bond debt service as authorized by the district at the time of the
   1-59  district's dissolution on all property formerly in the district,
   1-60  including property outside the municipality's boundaries, but the
   1-61  tax on the property outside the municipality's boundaries at the
   1-62  time of the district's dissolution may not exceed that area's pro
   1-63  rata share of the annual debt service obligations on the district's
   1-64  outstanding bonds.
   1-65        (d)  The municipality may not levy an ad valorem tax to pay
   1-66  annual debt service obligations on the district's outstanding bonds
   1-67  on property that, at the time the district is dissolved, is not
   1-68  within the district.
    2-1        (e)  The municipality may charge for water and sewer services
    2-2  to areas that, at the time the district is dissolved, are within
    2-3  the district but not within the municipality's boundaries rates not
    2-4  to exceed 125 percent of the rates charged to residents of the
    2-5  municipality as necessary to provide services to those areas.
    2-6        SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
    2-7  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
    2-8  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
    2-9  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   2-10  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
   2-11  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
   2-12  passage, and it is so enacted.
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