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.