S.B. 709 78(R) BILL ANALYSIS S.B. 709 By: Jackson County Affairs Committee Report (Unamended) BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE This bill lowers the population bracket from 500,000 to 250,00 for counties to enter into leasepurchase agreements. Galveston County Commissioners Court needs this bracket to be able to enter into an agreement for the land where they plan to build a new jail. An amendment was added in committee that will also allow the commissioners courts of these counties to enter into a licensing agreement with wireless communications service providers. This is to allow the counties to share communication towers with telecommunication companies. In most areas counties already enter into these agreements, but the commissioners court in Denton County needs explicit legislation to do so. There are seven counties in Texas that have population over 500,000, Harris, Dallas, Tarrant, Bexar, Travis, El Paso and Hidalgo. Under the current official census numbers, this legislation will include eight more counties, Collin, Denton, Fort Bend, Cameron, Nueces, Montgomery, Jefferson and Galveston RULEMAKING AUTHORITY It is the committee's opinion that this bill does not expressly grant any additional rulemaking authority to a state officer, department, agency, or institution. ANALYSIS Section 1 of SB 709 amends the title of the section 263.053 of the Local Government Code to reflect the population cap change to 500,000. Section 2 amends 263.053 Local Government Code rasing the population cap to 500,000. EFFECTIVE DATE Immediate effective date with two-thirds vote of each house, if not September 1, 2003.