By:  Wentworth                                        S.B. No. 1558

         Line and page numbers may not match official copy.

         Bill not drafted by TLC or Senate E&E.

                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

                                       AN ACT

 1-1     relating to adding land to a defined area within a water control

 1-2     and improvement district by petition of landowner.

 1-3           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

 1-4           SECTION 1.  Subchapter L, Chapter 51, Water Code, is amended

 1-5     by adding Section 51.530a to read as follows:

 1-6           Sec. 51.530a.  (a)  The owner of land may file with the board

 1-7     a petition requesting that the land described by metes and bounds

 1-8     in the petition, whether contiquous or not to the defined area, be

 1-9     included within a defined area previously established pursuant to

1-10     Section 51.518 of this Code.

1-11           (b)  If the defined area has bonds, notes, or other

1-12     obligations outstanding or bonds payable in whole or in part from

1-13     taxes that have been voted but are unissued for the defined area,

1-14     the board may require the petitioner or petitioners to assume their

1-15     share of the outstanding bonds, notes, or other obligations and the

1-16     voted but unissued tax bonds of the defined area and authorize the

1-17     board to levy a tax on their property in each year in which any of

1-18     the bonds, notes, or other obligations payable in whole or in part

1-19     from taxation on the defined area are outstanding to pay their

1-20     share of the indebtedness.

1-21           (c)  A petition of the landowner to add land to the defined

 2-1     area shall be signed and executed in the manner provided by law for

 2-2     the conveyance of real estate.

 2-3           (d)  The board shall hear and consider the petition and may

 2-4     add to the defined area the land described in the petition if it is

 2-5     feasible, practicable, and to the advantage of the defined area and

 2-6     if the defined area's system and other improvements of the defined

 2-7     area are sufficient or will be sufficient to supply the added land

 2-8     without injuring land already in the defined area.

 2-9           (e)  If the defined area has bonds payable in whole or in

2-10     part from taxation of a defined area that are voted but unissued at

2-11     the time of annexation and the petitioners assume the bonds and

2-12     authorize the district to levy a tax on their property to pay the

2-13     bonds of the defined area, then the board may issue the voted but

2-14     unissued bonds even though the boundaries of the defined area have

2-15     been altered since the authorization of the bonds.

2-16           (f)  The granted petition shall be filed for record and shall

2-17     be recorded in the office of the county clerk of the county or

2-18     counties in which the added land is located.

2-19           SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the

2-20     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

2-21     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

2-22     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

2-23     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.