1-1 By: Tillery (Senate Sponsor - Cain) H.B. No. 776 1-2 (In the Senate - Received from the House April 4, 1997; 1-3 April 8, 1997, read first time and referred to Committee on Natural 1-4 Resources; May 9, 1997, reported adversely, with favorable 1-5 Committee Substitute by the following vote: Yeas 9, Nays 0; 1-6 May 9, 1997, sent to printer.) 1-7 COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE FOR H.B. No. 776 By: Ogden 1-8 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED 1-9 AN ACT 1-10 relating to a municipal drainage utility system. 1-11 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS: 1-12 SECTION 1. Section 402.044(1), Local Government Code, is 1-13 amended to read as follows: 1-14 (1)(A) "Benefitted property" means an improved lot or 1-15 tract to which drainage service is made available under this 1-16 subchapter. 1-17 (B) "Benefitted property," in a municipality 1-18 with a population of more than 1,000,000 which is operating a 1-19 drainage utility system under this chapter, means a lot or tract, 1-20 but does not include land appraised for agricultural use, to which 1-21 drainage service is made available under this subchapter and which 1-22 discharges into a creek, river, slough, culvert, or other channel 1-23 that is part of the municipality's drainage utility system. 1-24 Sections 402.053(c)(2) and (c)(3) do not apply to a municipality 1-25 described in this subdivision. 1-26 SECTION 2. Subsection (b), Section 402.047, Local Government 1-27 Code is amended to read as follows: 1-28 In setting the schedule of charges for drainage service, the 1-29 governing body must base its calculations on an inventory of the 1-30 lots and tracts within the service area. The governing body may 1-31 use approved tax plats and assessment rolls for that purpose. The 1-32 governing body may also consider the land use made of the 1-33 benefitted property. The governing body may consider the size, in 1-34 area, the number of water meters, and topography of a parcel of 1-35 benefitted property in assessing the drainage charge to the 1-36 property. 1-37 SECTION 3. This Act takes effect September 1, 1997. 1-38 SECTION 4. The importance of this legislation and the 1-39 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an 1-40 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the 1-41 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several 1-42 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended. 1-43 * * * * *