S.B. No. 1371
AN ACT
1-1 relating to the authority of certain political subdivisions to
1-2 contract for solid waste services.
1-3 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-4 SECTION 1. Section 364.031, Health and Safety Code, is
1-5 amended to read as follows:
1-6 Sec. 364.031. Public Agency Contracts. (a) A public agency
1-7 may contract with another public agency or a private contractor <a
1-8 county> for the other public agency or private contractor <county>
1-9 to:
1-10 (1) make all or part of a solid waste disposal system
1-11 available to a public agency, a group of public agencies, or other
1-12 persons; and
1-13 (2) furnish solid waste collection, transportation,
1-14 handling, storage, or disposal services through the other public
1-15 agency's or private contractor's <county's> system.
1-16 (b) The contract may:
1-17 (1) be for the duration agreed on by the parties;
1-18 (2) provide that the contract remains in effect until
1-19 bonds issued or to be issued by either public agency <the county>
1-20 and refunding bonds issued for those original bonds are paid;
1-21 (3) contain provisions to assure equitable treatment
1-22 of parties who contract with the other public agency or private
1-23 contractor <county> for solid waste collection, transportation,
1-24 handling, storage, or disposal services from the same solid waste
2-1 disposal system;
2-2 (4) provide for the sale or lease to or use by the
2-3 other public agency or private contractor <county> of a solid waste
2-4 disposal system owned or to be acquired by the public agency;
2-5 (5) provide that the other public agency or private
2-6 contractor <county> will operate a solid waste disposal system
2-7 owned or to be acquired by the public agency;
2-8 (6) provide that the public agency is entitled to
2-9 continued performance of services after the amortization of the
2-10 other public agency's or private contractor's <county's> investment
2-11 in the disposal system during the useful life of the system on
2-12 payment of reasonable charges, reduced to take into consideration
2-13 the amortization; and
2-14 (7) contain any other provisions and requirements the
2-15 other public agency or private contractor <county> and the public
2-16 agency determine to be appropriate or necessary.
2-17 (c) The contract must provide the method to determine the
2-18 amount the public agency will pay to the other public agency or
2-19 private contractor <county>.
2-20 (d) A municipality may provide in its contract that the
2-21 other public agency or private contractor <county> has the right to
2-22 use the streets, alleys, and public ways and places in the
2-23 municipality during the term of the contract.
2-24 (e) This section does not expand the authority granted to a
2-25 county under Section 364.013.
2-26 SECTION 2. A contract between a municipality and another
2-27 public agency or private contractor entered into before the
3-1 effective date of this Act in reliance on the authority of a
3-2 municipality to contract for collection, transportation, handling,
3-3 storage, or disposal of solid waste is validated to the extent of
3-4 the authority of the municipality to so contract.
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.