76R12424 SMJ-D                           
         By Bailey                                             H.B. No. 1573
         Substitute the following for H.B. No. 1573:
         By Counts                                         C.S.H.B. No. 1573
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to the provision of water and sewer service in the
 1-3     unincorporated area of a populous county; authorizing the issuance
 1-4     of county bonds.
 1-5           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-6           SECTION 1.  Subchapter B, Chapter 412, Local Government Code,
 1-7     is amended by adding Section 412.016 to read as follows:
 1-8           Sec. 412.016.  WATER AND SEWER SERVICE IN POPULOUS COUNTY.
 1-9     (a)  This section applies only to the unincorporated area of a
1-10     county with a population of more than 2.8 million in which a
1-11     building without water or sewer service is located.
1-12           (b)  A county may provide water or sewer service to a
1-13     building by:
1-14                 (1)  owning, constructing, and operating a water or
1-15     sewer system in the same manner that Section 402.017 provides for a
1-16     home-rule municipality to own, construct, and operate a water
1-17     system; or
1-18                 (2)  contracting for the provision of services with a
1-19     retail public utility, as that term is defined by Section 13.002,
1-20     Water Code.
1-21           (c)  The term of a contract made under Subsection (b)(2) may
1-22     be for any period to which the county and the retail public utility
1-23     agree.  The contract may provide for a renewal and extension of the
1-24     contract.
 2-1           (d)  A retail public utility providing water or sewer service
 2-2     under Subsection (b)(2) may issue notes or bonds for the
 2-3     acquisition of facilities necessary or convenient for supplying the
 2-4     service under the contract.  The utility may secure the notes or
 2-5     bonds by a pledge of revenues to be derived under the contract.
 2-6           (e)  A county may issue general obligation bonds as provided
 2-7     by Chapter 1, Title 22, Revised Statutes, to finance an activity
 2-8     under Subsection (b)(1).
 2-9           (f)  A county may obtain funding for the provision of water
2-10     or sewer service under this section from any state or federal
2-11     source.
2-12           (g)  A county may not provide water or sewer service under
2-13     this section in the extraterritorial jurisdiction of a municipality
2-14     unless the municipality approves the provision of the service.
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.