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.