By Tillery                                       H.B. No. 776

      75R3746 CAG-D                           

                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

 1-1                                   AN ACT

 1-2     relating to a municipal drainage utility system.

 1-3           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

 1-4           SECTION 1.  Section 402.044(1), Local Government Code, is

 1-5     amended to read as follows:

 1-6                 (1) [(A)]  "Benefitted property" means a [an improved]

 1-7     lot or tract, including a commercial parking lot, to which drainage

 1-8     service is made available under this subchapter and that receives

 1-9     water, wastewater, or electric utility service from the

1-10     municipality having jurisdiction to adopt this subchapter and

1-11     declare the drainage of the municipality to be a public utility.

1-12                       [(B)  "Benefitted property," in a municipality

1-13     with a population of more than 1,000,000 which is operating a

1-14     drainage utility system under this chapter, means a lot or tract to

1-15     which drainage service is made available under this subchapter and

1-16     which discharges into a creek, river, slough, culvert, or other

1-17     channel that is part of the municipality's drainage utility system.

1-18     Sections 402.053(c)(2) and (c)(3) do not apply to a municipality

1-19     described in this subdivision.]

1-20           SECTION 2.  Sections 402.044(10) and (11), Local Government

1-21     Code, are repealed.

1-22           SECTION 3.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1997.

1-23           SECTION 4.  The importance of this legislation and the

1-24     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

 2-1     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

 2-2     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

 2-3     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.