By Greenberg                                    H.B. No. 2445

      75R8455 DRH-D                           

                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

 1-1                                   AN ACT

 1-2     relating to the authority of certain metropolitan rapid transit

 1-3     authorities to hold a referendum on the operation of a fixed rail

 1-4     transit system.

 1-5           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

 1-6           SECTION 1.  Subchapter B, Chapter 451, Transportation Code,

 1-7     is amended by adding Section 451.071 to read as follows:

 1-8           Sec. 451.071.  REFERENDUM FOR RAIL PLAN; CERTAIN AUTHORITIES.

 1-9     (a)  This section applies only to an authority confirmed before

1-10     July 1, 1985, in which the principal municipality has a population

1-11     of less than 750,000.

1-12           (b)  The authority may hold a referendum on whether the

1-13     authority may operate a fixed rail transit system.  At the election

1-14     the ballots shall be printed to permit voting for or against the

1-15     following proposition:  "The operation of a fixed rail system by

1-16     (name of authority)."

1-17           (c)  The notice of an election called under this section must

1-18     include a general description of the form of the fixed rail transit

1-19     system, including the general location of any proposed routes.

1-20           (d)  If a majority of the votes cast are in favor of the

1-21     proposition, the authority may build and operate the system as

1-22     provided in the notice for the election.  If less than a majority

1-23     of the votes cast are in favor of the proposition, the authority

1-24     may not expend funds of the authority to purchase, acquire,

 2-1     construct, operate, or maintain any form of a fixed rail transit

 2-2     system unless the system is approved by a majority of the votes

 2-3     cast at a referendum held by the authority for that purpose.

 2-4           (e)  A subsequent referendum under Subsection (d):

 2-5                 (1)  may be held more than once;

 2-6                 (2)  is held in the same manner as the initial

 2-7     referendum; and

 2-8                 (3)  may not be held before the first anniversary of an

 2-9     election previously held under this section.

2-10           SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the

2-11     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

2-12     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

2-13     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

2-14     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,

2-15     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its

2-16     passage, and it is so enacted.