75R11200 DRH-F                           

         By Greenberg, Krusee, Dukes, Maxey,                   H.B. No. 2446

            Naishtat, et al. 

         Substitute the following for H.B. No. 2446:

         By Bailey                                         C.S.H.B. No. 2446

                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

 1-1                                   AN ACT

 1-2     relating to performance audits of certain metropolitan transit

 1-3     authorities.

 1-4           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

 1-5           SECTION 1.  Subchapter J, Chapter 451, Transportation Code,

 1-6     is amended by adding Section 451.458 to read as follows:

 1-7           Sec. 451.458.  COMPTROLLER'S PERFORMANCE AUDITS OF CERTAIN

 1-8     AUTHORITIES.  (a)  In addition to the audit required by Section

 1-9     451.454, an authority the board of which was confirmed before July

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

1-11     of less than 750,000 is subject to performance audits by the

1-12     comptroller to determine whether the authority is accomplishing the

1-13     purposes for which it was created.  In performing an audit under

1-14     this section, the comptroller may examine any budgets and

1-15     operations of the authority, determine whether the authority is

1-16     effectively and efficiently providing the services it was created

1-17     to provide, and make appropriate recommendations to the

1-18     legislature.

1-19           (b)  The comptroller may conduct an audit under this section

1-20     at the comptroller's discretion and shall conduct an audit at the

1-21     request of the governor, the lieutenant governor, the speaker of

1-22     the house of representatives, or the presiding officer of the

1-23     committee of the senate or the house of representatives responsible

1-24     for approving legislation governing the authority, except that an

 2-1     audit under this section may not be performed more often than once

 2-2     every two years.

 2-3           (c)  The comptroller shall file a copy of the report of each

 2-4     audit performed under this section with each person who has

 2-5     authority to initiate the audit.

 2-6           (d)  After beginning an audit under this section, the

 2-7     comptroller may withhold from the revenue derived from the sales

 2-8     and use tax imposed by the authority an amount not to exceed the

 2-9     cost of performing the audit.  Amounts withheld under this

2-10     subsection shall be deposited by the comptroller to the credit of

2-11     the general revenue fund and may be appropriated only to the

2-12     comptroller for the purposes of administering this section.  The

2-13     authority to withhold provided by this section is in addition to

2-14     the deduction authorized by Section 322.303, Tax Code.

2-15           SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the

2-16     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

2-17     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

2-18     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

2-19     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,

2-20     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its

2-21     passage, and it is so enacted.