By Walker H.B. No. 2926
76R7503 BDH-F
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
1-1 AN ACT
1-2 relating to elections to approve consolidation of groundwater
1-3 conservation districts.
1-4 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-5 SECTION 1. Section 36.351(a), Water Code, is amended to read
1-6 as follows:
1-7 (a) Two or more districts may consolidate into one district.
1-8 To initiate a consolidation, the board of a district shall adopt a
1-9 resolution proposing a consolidation and deliver a copy of the
1-10 resolution to the board of each district with which consolidation
1-11 is proposed.
1-12 SECTION 2. Sections 36.354(a), (b), and (d), Water Code, are
1-13 amended to read as follows:
1-14 (a) An election to ratify the consolidation is required in
1-15 each district that initiates consolidation [unless the districts to
1-16 be consolidated meet the following requirements:]
1-17 [(1) the districts have not authorized or issued bonds
1-18 and do not levy or assess taxes; or]
1-19 [(2) the consolidation would not result in any
1-20 additional taxing or bonding authority for any of the districts,
1-21 and would not require any district to contribute to the debt
1-22 payments of any other district]. An election is not required in a
1-23 district that does not initiate consolidation.
1-24 (b) The board of each district that is required by
2-1 Subsection (a) to conduct an election shall order an election in
2-2 the [each] district [to be consolidated] only after the board of
2-3 each district to be consolidated has agreed on the terms and
2-4 conditions of consolidation. The directors of each district
2-5 conducting an election shall order the election to be held on the
2-6 same day in each district. The election shall be held and notice
2-7 given in the manner provided by the Election Code.
2-8 (d) A district may be consolidated only if a majority of the
2-9 electors in each district required by Subsection (a) to conduct an
2-10 election vote in favor of the consolidation. If more than two
2-11 districts are consolidating, failure of any one district to ratify
2-12 the consolidation shall not prevent the consolidation of the other
2-13 districts.
2-14 SECTION 3. The importance of this legislation and the
2-15 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
2-16 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
2-17 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
2-18 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
2-19 and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
2-20 passage, and it is so enacted.