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.
1-51 * * * * *