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.

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