1-1     By:  Ogden                                             S.B. No. 713
 1-2           (In the Senate - Filed February 25, 1999; March 1, 1999, read
 1-3     first time and referred to Committee on Finance; May 12, 1999,
 1-4     reported favorably, as amended, by the following vote:  Yeas 8,
 1-5     Nays 2; May 12, 1999, sent to printer.)
 1-6     COMMITTEE AMENDMENT NO. 1                                By:  Ogden
 1-7           Amend S.B. No. 713 (Senate filed version) on page 1, line 63,
 1-8     by striking "$50 million" and substituting "$25 million".
 1-9                            A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
1-10                                   AN ACT
1-11     relating to the county and road district highway fund.
1-12           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-13           SECTION 1.  Subsections (b) and (c), Section 256.002,
1-14     Transportation Code, are amended to read as follows:
1-15           (b)  The money appropriated under Subsection (a)  shall be
1-16     allocated among the counties as follows:
1-17                 (1)  one-half [one-fifth according to area, determined
1-18     by the ratio of the area of the county to the area of the state;]
1-19                 [(2)  two-fifths] according to rural population,
1-20     determined by the ratio of the rural population of the county to
1-21     the rural population of the state; and
1-22                 (2)  one-half [(3)  two-fifths] according to lateral
1-23     road mileage, determined by the ratio of the mileage of lateral
1-24     roads in the county to the mileage of lateral roads in the state as
1-25     of January 1 of the year of the allocation as shown by the records
1-26     of the State-Federal Highway Planning Survey and the department.
1-27           (c)  On its own motion or at the request of a county, the
1-28     commission may have a survey made of the county's lateral road
1-29     mileage.  If a survey is made, its results shall be substituted for
1-30     the corresponding government information to be used under
1-31     Subsection (b)(2) [(b)(3)].  The governmental entity that requests
1-32     the survey shall pay for it.
1-33           SECTION 2.  Subsection (a), Section 256.003, Transportation
1-34     Code, is amended to read as follows:
1-35           (a)  A county may use the money it receives under Section
1-36     256.002 only for:
1-37                 (1)  purchasing right-of-way for lateral roads,
1-38     farm-to-market roads, or state highways;
1-39                 (2)  funding contracts for constructing and maintaining
1-40     lateral roads, as provided by Chapter 262, Local Government Code,
1-41     including the hiring of labor and the purchase of materials,
1-42     supplies, and equipment; or
1-43                 (3)  paying the principal, interest, and sinking fund
1-44     requirements maturing during the fiscal year on bonds, warrants, or
1-45     other legal obligations incurred to finance activities described in
1-46     Subdivisions (1) and (2).
1-47           SECTION 3.  Section 153.503, Tax Code, is amended to read as
1-48     follows:
1-49           Sec. 153.503.  ALLOCATION OF GASOLINE TAX.  On or before the
1-50     fifth workday after the end of each month, the comptroller, after
1-51     making all deductions for refund purposes and for the amounts
1-52     allocated under Sections 153.502 and 153.5025, shall allocate the
1-53     net remainder of the taxes collected under Subchapter B as follows:
1-54                 (1)  one-fourth of the tax shall be deposited to the
1-55     credit of the available school fund;
1-56                 (2)  one-half of the tax shall be deposited to the
1-57     credit of the state highway fund for the construction and
1-58     maintenance of the state road system under existing law; and
1-59                 (3)  from the remaining one-fourth of the tax the
1-60     comptroller shall:
1-61                       (A)  deposit to the credit of the county and road
1-62     district highway fund all the remaining tax receipts until a total
1-63     of $50 million [$7,300,000] has been credited to the fund each
 2-1     fiscal year; and
 2-2                       (B)  after the amount required to be deposited to
 2-3     the county and road district highway funds has been deposited,
 2-4     deposit to the credit of the state highway fund the remainder of
 2-5     the one-fourth of the tax, the amount to be provided on the basis
 2-6     of allocations made each month of the fiscal year, which sum shall
 2-7     be used by the Texas Department of Transportation for the
 2-8     construction, improvement, and maintenance of farm-to-market roads.
 2-9           SECTION 4.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1999.
2-10           SECTION 5.  The importance of this legislation and the
2-11     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
2-12     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
2-13     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
2-14     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.
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