By:  Luna                                              S.B. No. 831
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
                                        AN ACT
    1-1  relating to the lease of property by the Department of
    1-2  Transportation to institutions of higher education.
    1-3        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-4        SECTION 1.  Section 2, Chapter 757, Acts of the 70th
    1-5  Legislature, Regular Session, 1987 (Article 6673a-3, Vernon's Texas
    1-6  Civil Statutes), is amended to read as follows:
    1-7        Sec. 2.  AUTHORITY TO LEASE.  The department may lease for
    1-8  any purpose not inconsistent with applicable highway uses any
    1-9  highway asset, part of the right-of-way for, or the airspace above
   1-10  or underground space below, a highway that is a part of the state
   1-11  highway system if the department has determined that the area to be
   1-12  leased will not be needed for highway purposes during the period of
   1-13  the lease.  The department shall charge, as a minimum, fair market
   1-14  value, with certain exceptions to be determined by the department
   1-15  for:
   1-16              (1)  leases of highway assets to public utility
   1-17  providers;
   1-18              (2)  leases <and> for social, environmental, and
   1-19  economic mitigation purposes; and
   1-20              (3)  a lease to an institution of higher education, as
   1-21  defined by Section 61.003, Education Code, for purposes of the
   1-22  institution.
   1-23        SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
    2-1  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
    2-2  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
    2-3  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
    2-4  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
    2-5  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
    2-6  passage, and it is so enacted.