By Lewis of Tarrant H.B. No. 1903
75R6262 PAM-D
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
1-1 AN ACT
1-2 relating to the authority of a county to acquire, own, operate, or
1-3 maintain a water or sewer utility system.
1-4 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-5 SECTION 1. Section 412.015, Local Government Code, is
1-6 amended to read as follows:
1-7 Sec. 412.015. COUNTY WATER AND SEWER UTILITY. (a) A [An
1-8 affected] county[, as defined by Section 16.341, Water Code,] may
1-9 acquire, own, operate, or maintain a water or sewer utility system
1-10 to serve an unincorporated area of the county in the same manner as
1-11 a municipality under Chapter 402.
1-12 (b) Except as provided by Subsection (c), a county may
1-13 acquire, by eminent domain or another method, any interest in
1-14 property necessary to operate a water or sewer utility system.
1-15 (c) A county may not acquire property through eminent domain
1-16 if the property is located inside the corporate limits of a
1-17 municipality.
1-18 (d) A county may not provide water or sewer service to:
1-19 (1) an area in the extraterritorial jurisdiction of a
1-20 municipality unless the municipality consents; or
1-21 (2) an area to which a holder of a certificate of
1-22 public convenience and necessity must provide service under Section
1-23 13.250, Water Code, unless the holder of the certificate consents.
1-24 (e) A county may issue bonds payable only from the revenue
2-1 generated by the water or sewer utility system. The revenue bonds
2-2 and notes of the county are not an agreement, obligation,
2-3 indebtedness, or liability of, a pledge or loan of the faith or
2-4 credit of, or a taxing power of a county or the state within the
2-5 meaning of any constitutional or statutory provision.
2-6 SECTION 2. This Act takes effect September 1, 1997.
2-7 SECTION 3. The importance of this legislation and the
2-8 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
2-9 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
2-10 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
2-11 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.