By Danburg H.B. No. 2418
75R6855 JJT-F
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
1-1 AN ACT
1-2 relating to telecommunications utility access to certain municipal
1-3 public rights-of-way.
1-4 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-5 SECTION 1. Sections 3.2555(a), (b), and (f), Public Utility
1-6 Regulatory Act of 1995 (Article 1446c-0, Vernon's Texas Civil
1-7 Statutes), are amended to read as follows:
1-8 (a) An applicant for a certificate of operating authority or
1-9 service provider certificate of operating authority shall file with
1-10 its application a sworn statement that the applicant [it] has
1-11 applied for any necessary municipal consent, franchise, or permit
1-12 required for the type of services and facilities for which the
1-13 applicant [it] has applied. The statement must be issued by each
1-14 municipality in which the applicant proposes to provide service or
1-15 place a facility. Notwithstanding Section 1.103 of this Act, a
1-16 municipality may not discriminate against a telecommunications
1-17 utility in relation to:
1-18 (1) the authorization or placement of
1-19 telecommunications facilities within public right-of-way;
1-20 (2) access to buildings; or
1-21 (3) municipal utility pole attachment rates, terms,
1-22 and conditions, to the extent not addressed by federal law.
1-23 (b) In the granting of consent, franchises, and permits for
1-24 the use of public streets, alleys, or rights-of-way within its
2-1 corporate municipal limits, a municipality may not discriminate in
2-2 favor of or against a telecommunications utility that holds or has
2-3 applied for a certificate of convenience and necessity, certificate
2-4 of operating authority, or service provider certificate of
2-5 operating authority all in relation to:
2-6 (1) the authorization [authorizing], placement,
2-7 replacement, or removal of telecommunications facilities within
2-8 public rights-of-way;
2-9 (2) [and] the reasonable compensation of any kind for
2-10 access to the public rights-of-way, including compensation in the
2-11 form of [therefor of whatever kind, whether] money, services, use
2-12 of facilities, or any other consideration; or
2-13 (3) [(2)] municipal utility pole attachment or
2-14 underground conduit rates, terms, and conditions, to the extent not
2-15 addressed by federal law, provided that a municipal utility may not
2-16 charge pole attachment rates or underground conduit rates that
2-17 exceed the fee the utility would be permitted to charge if its
2-18 rates were regulated under federal law and the rules of the Federal
2-19 Communications Commission.
2-20 (f) Nothing in this Act shall restrict or limit a
2-21 municipality's historical right to control and receive from all
2-22 telecommunications utilities reasonable compensation for access to
2-23 the municipality's [its] public streets, alleys, [or]
2-24 rights-of-way, or other public property.
2-25 SECTION 2. Changes in law made by this Act apply only to an
2-26 application for a certificate of operating authority or service
2-27 provider certificate of operating authority that is filed with the
3-1 Public Utility Commission of Texas on or after the effective date
3-2 of this Act. An application for a certificate of operating
3-3 authority or service provider certificate of operating authority
3-4 that is filed with the Public Utility Commission of Texas before
3-5 the effective date of this Act is governed by the law in effect
3-6 immediately before that date and the former law is continued in
3-7 effect for that purpose.
3-8 SECTION 3. The importance of this legislation and the
3-9 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
3-10 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
3-11 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
3-12 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
3-13 and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
3-14 passage, and it is so enacted.