1-1     By:  Walker (Senate Sponsor - Bivins)                 H.B. No. 2926
 1-2           (In the Senate - Received from the House April 19, 1999;
 1-3     April 20, 1999, read first time and referred to Committee on
 1-4     Natural Resources; May 12, 1999, reported favorably by the
 1-5     following vote:  Yeas 6, Nays 0; May 12, 1999, sent to printer.)
 1-6                            A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-7                                   AN ACT
 1-8     relating to elections to approve consolidation of groundwater
 1-9     conservation districts.
1-10           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-11           SECTION 1.  Section 36.351(a), Water Code, is amended to read
1-12     as follows:
1-13           (a)  Two or more districts may consolidate into one district.
1-14     To initiate a consolidation, the board of a district shall adopt a
1-15     resolution proposing a consolidation and deliver a copy of the
1-16     resolution to the board of each district with which consolidation
1-17     is proposed.
1-18           SECTION 2.  Sections 36.354(a), (b), and (d), Water Code, are
1-19     amended to read as follows:
1-20           (a)  An election to ratify the consolidation is required in
1-21     each district that initiates consolidation [unless the districts to
1-22     be consolidated meet the following requirements:]
1-23                 [(1)  the districts have not authorized or issued bonds
1-24     and do not levy or assess taxes; or]
1-25                 [(2)  the consolidation would not result in any
1-26     additional taxing or bonding authority for any of the districts,
1-27     and would not require any district to contribute to the debt
1-28     payments of any other district].  An election is not required in a
1-29     district that does not initiate consolidation.
1-30           (b)  The board of each district that is required by
1-31     Subsection (a) to conduct an election shall order an election in
1-32     the [each] district [to be consolidated] only after the board of
1-33     each district to be consolidated has agreed on the terms and
1-34     conditions of consolidation.  The directors of each district
1-35     conducting an election  shall order the election to be held on the
1-36     same day in each district.  The election shall be held and notice
1-37     given in the manner provided by  the Election Code.
1-38           (d)  A district may be consolidated only if a majority of the
1-39     electors in each district required by Subsection (a) to conduct an
1-40     election vote in favor of the consolidation.  If more than two
1-41     districts are consolidating, failure of any one district to ratify
1-42     the consolidation shall not prevent the consolidation of the other
1-43     districts.
1-44           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
1-45     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
1-46     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
1-47     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
1-48     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
1-49     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
1-50     passage, and it is so enacted.
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