By:  Lindsay                                           S.B. No. 679

                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

                                       AN ACT

 1-1     relating to the use of a portion of the sales and use tax revenue

 1-2     collected by certain metropolitan rapid transit authorities for

 1-3     county and municipal road and bridge purposes.

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

 1-5           SECTION 1.  Section 451.065, Transportation Code, is amended

 1-6     by adding Subsections (g) and (h) to read as follows:

 1-7           (g)  Not later than April 1 of each year, the board of an

 1-8     authority that imposes a sales and use tax shall distribute not

 1-9     less than 25 percent of the sales and use tax revenue that the

1-10     authority collected during the preceding calendar year to each

1-11     municipality and county located in the authority.  The board shall

1-12     distribute the amount in consultation with the municipalities and

1-13     the counties.  Money received from the authority by a municipality

1-14     or a county may be used only for the performance of an action

1-15     described by Subsection (a).  A municipality with a population of

1-16     less than 1.2 million must contract with the county in which the

1-17     municipality is located, or with the principal municipality of the

1-18     authority, for the design, acquisition of necessary right-of-way,

1-19     and construction of a project under Subsection (a) that is to be

1-20     located in that municipality.  This subsection applies only to the

1-21     board of an authority in which the principal municipality has a

1-22     population of more than 1.2 million.

1-23           (h)  Subsection (g) does not apply if, at an election called

 2-1     by the authority, a majority of the votes cast approve a

 2-2     proposition eliminating the requirement for distributions under

 2-3     Subsection (g).

 2-4           SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect January 1, 1998.

 2-5           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the

 2-6     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

 2-7     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

 2-8     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

 2-9     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.