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By:  Ogden                                                        S.B. No. 53 

A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to the financing and development of the Trans-Texas Corridor and other transportation projects or programs. BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS: SECTION 1. Subsection (a), Section 227.014, Transportation Code, is amended to read as follows: (a) If the commission determines that the mobility needs of this state would be most efficiently and economically met by jointly operating two or more facilities as one operational and financial enterprise, it may create a system composed of those facilities. The commission may create more than one system and may combine two or more systems into one system. The commission may finance, construct, and operate [an] additional facilities [facility] as an expansion of a system if the commission determines that the facilities [facility] would most efficiently and economically be constructed and operated if [it were a] part of the system and that the addition will benefit the system. A system may only include facilities included in a comprehensive transportation corridor developed under a comprehensive development agreement, or facilities located wholly or partly within the territory of[: [(1)] a metropolitan planning organization[;] or [(2)] two adjacent department districts. This section does not prohibit the department from creating a system that includes a facility that will extend continuously through the territory of two or more metropolitan planning organizations or more than two adjacent department districts. SECTION 2. Subsection (c), Section 227.023, Transportation Code, is amended to read as follows: (c) To the extent and in the manner that the department may enter into comprehensive development agreements under Chapter 361 with regard to turnpikes, the department may enter into a comprehensive development agreement [agreements] under this chapter that provides for the financing, development, design, construction, or operation of a facility or a combination of [with regard to] facilities on the Trans-Texas Corridor. All provisions of Chapter 361 relating to comprehensive development agreements for turnpikes apply to comprehensive development agreements for facilities under this chapter, including provisions relating to the confidentiality of information. Claims arising under a comprehensive development agreement are subject to Section 201.112. SECTION 3. Subchapter H, Chapter 201, Transportation Code, is amended by adding Section 201.616 to read as follows: Sec. 201.616. ANNUAL REPORT TO LEGISLATURE ON CERTAIN MATTERS. (a) Not later than December 1 of each year, the department shall submit a report to the legislature that details: (1) the expenditures made by the department in the preceding state fiscal year in connection with: (A) the unified transportation program of the department; (B) turnpike projects and toll roads of the department; (C) the Trans-Texas Corridor; (D) rail facilities described in Chapter 91; and (E) non-highway facilities on the Trans-Texas Corridor if those expenditures are subject to Section 227.062(c); (2) the amount of bonds or other public securities issued for transportation projects; and (3) the direction of money by the department to a regional mobility authority in this state. (b) The report must break down information under Subsection (a)(1)(A) by program category and department district. The report must break down information under Subsections (a)(1)(B), (C), (D), and (E) and Subsection (a)(3) by department district. The report must break down information under Subsection (a)(2) by department district and type of project. (c) The report may be submitted in an electronic format. SECTION 4. This Act takes effect immediately if it receives a vote of two-thirds of all the members elected to each house, as provided by Section 39, Article III, Texas Constitution. If this Act does not receive the vote necessary for immediate effect, this Act takes effect November 1, 2003.