By:  Ogden                                             S.B. No. 713
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
                                       AN ACT
 1-1     relating to the county and road district highway fund.
 1-2           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-3           SECTION 1.  Subsections (b) and (c), Section 256.002,
 1-4     Transportation Code, are amended to read as follows:
 1-5           (b)  The money appropriated under Subsection (a) shall be
 1-6     allocated among the counties as follows:
 1-7                 (1)  one-half [one-fifth according to area, determined
 1-8     by the ratio of the area of the county to the area of the state;]
 1-9                 [(2)  two-fifths] according to rural population,
1-10     determined by the ratio of the rural population of the county to
1-11     the rural population of the state; and
1-12                 (2)  one-half [(3)  two-fifths] according to lateral
1-13     road mileage, determined by the ratio of the mileage of lateral
1-14     roads in the county to the mileage of lateral roads in the state as
1-15     of January 1 of the year of the allocation as shown by the records
1-16     of the State-Federal Highway Planning Survey and the department.
1-17           (c)  On its own motion or at the request of a county, the
1-18     commission may have a survey made of the county's lateral road
1-19     mileage.  If a survey is made, its results shall be substituted for
1-20     the corresponding government information to be used under
1-21     Subsection (b)(2) [(b)(3)].  The governmental entity that requests
1-22     the survey shall pay for it.
1-23           SECTION 2.  Subsection (a), Section 256.003, Transportation
1-24     Code, is amended to read as follows:
 2-1           (a)  A county may use the money it receives under Section
 2-2     256.002 only for:
 2-3                 (1)  purchasing right-of-way for lateral roads,
 2-4     farm-to-market roads, or state highways;
 2-5                 (2)  funding contracts for constructing and maintaining
 2-6     lateral roads, as provided by Chapter 262, Local Government Code,
 2-7     including the hiring of labor and the purchase of materials,
 2-8     supplies, and equipment; or
 2-9                 (3)  paying the principal, interest, and sinking fund
2-10     requirements maturing during the fiscal year on bonds, warrants, or
2-11     other legal obligations incurred to finance activities described in
2-12     Subdivisions (1) and (2).
2-13           SECTION 3.  Section 153.503, Tax Code, is amended to read as
2-14     follows:
2-15           Sec. 153.503.  ALLOCATION OF GASOLINE TAX.  On or before the
2-16     fifth workday after the end of each month, the comptroller, after
2-17     making all deductions for refund purposes and for the amounts
2-18     allocated under Sections 153.502 and 153.5025, shall allocate the
2-19     net remainder of the taxes collected under Subchapter B as follows:
2-20                 (1)  one-fourth of the tax shall be deposited to the
2-21     credit of the available school fund;
2-22                 (2)  one-half of the tax shall be deposited to the
2-23     credit of the state highway fund for the construction and
2-24     maintenance of the state road system under existing law; and
2-25                 (3)  from the remaining one-fourth of the tax the
2-26     comptroller shall:
 3-1                       (A)  deposit to the credit of the county and road
 3-2     district highway fund all the remaining tax receipts until a total
 3-3     of $25 million [$7,300,000] has been credited to the fund each
 3-4     fiscal year; and
 3-5                       (B)  after the amount required to be deposited to
 3-6     the county and road district highway funds has been deposited,
 3-7     deposit to the credit of the state highway fund the remainder of
 3-8     the one-fourth of the tax, the amount to be provided on the basis
 3-9     of allocations made each month of the fiscal year, which sum shall
3-10     be used by the Texas Department of Transportation for the
3-11     construction, improvement, and maintenance of farm-to-market roads.
3-12           SECTION 4.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1999.
3-13           SECTION 5.  The importance of this legislation and the
3-14     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
3-15     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
3-16     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
3-17     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.