By: Ratliff S.B. No. 912
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to surplus and salvage computer equipment.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Subdivision (1), Section 2175.001, Government
Code, as amended by Chapters 1004 and 1422, Acts of the 77th
Legislature, Regular Session, 2001, is reenacted and amended to
read as follows:
(1) "Assistance organization" means:
(A) a nonprofit organization that provides
educational, health, or human services or assistance to homeless
individuals;
(B) a nonprofit food bank that solicits,
warehouses, and redistributes edible but unmarketable food to an
agency that feeds needy families and individuals;
(C) Texas Partners of the Americas, a registered
agency with the Advisory Committee on Voluntary Foreign Aid, with
the approval of the Partners of the Alliance office of the Agency
for International Development;
(D) a group, including a faith-based group, that
enters into a financial or nonfinancial agreement with a health or
human services agency to provide services to that agency's clients;
(E) a local workforce development board created
under Section 2308.253;
(F) a nonprofit organization approved by the
Supreme Court of Texas that provides free legal services for
low-income households in civil matters; [and]
(G) the Texas Boll Weevil Eradication
Foundation, Inc., or an entity designated by the commissioner of
agriculture as the foundation's successor entity under Section
74.1011, Agriculture Code; and
(H) a nonprofit computer bank that solicits,
stores, refurbishes, and redistributes used computer equipment to
public school students and their families.
SECTION 2. Section 2175.128, Government Code, as amended by
Chapters 816, 1272, and 1422, Acts of the 77th Legislature, Regular
Session, 2001, is amended to read as follows:
Sec. 2175.128. DISPOSITION OF DATA PROCESSING EQUIPMENT.
(a) If a disposition of a state agency's surplus or salvage data
processing equipment is not made under Section 2175.125 or
2175.184, the state agency shall transfer the equipment to:
(1) a school district or open-enrollment charter
school in this state under Subchapter C, Chapter 32, Education
Code;
(2) an assistance organization specified by the school
district;[,] or
(3) [to] the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.
[The state agency may not collect a fee or other reimbursement from
the district, the school, or the Texas Department of Criminal
Justice for the surplus or salvage data processing equipment.]
(b) If a disposition of the surplus or salvage data
processing equipment of a state eleemosynary institution or an
institution or agency of higher education is not made under other
law, the institution or agency shall transfer the equipment to:
(1) a school district or open-enrollment charter
school in this state under Subchapter C, Chapter 32, Education
Code;
(2) an assistance organization specified by the school
district;[,] or
(3) [to] the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.
(c) The state eleemosynary institution or institution or
agency of higher education or other state agency may not collect a
fee or other reimbursement from the district, the school, the
assistance organization, or the Texas Department of Criminal
Justice for the surplus or salvage data processing equipment
transferred under this section.
SECTION 3. Subsections (b) and (c), Section 2175.304,
Government Code, are amended to read as follows:
(b) The governing board of each university system or
institution or agency of higher education included within the
definition of "state agency" under Section 2151.002 shall establish
written procedures for the disposition of surplus or salvage
property of the system, institution, or agency. The procedures
shall allow for the direct transfer of materials or equipment that
can be used for instructional purposes to a public school or school
district, or an assistance organization designated by the school
district, at a price or for other consideration to which the system,
institution, or agency and the public school or school district or
the assistance organization agree or for no consideration as the
system, institution, or agency determines appropriate.
(c) The procedures established under Subsection (b) must
give preference to transferring the property directly to a public
school or school district or to an assistance organization
designated by the school district before disposing of the property
in another manner. If more than one public school or school
district or assistance organization seeks to acquire the same
property on substantially the same terms, the system, institution,
or agency shall give preference to a public school that is
considered low-performing by the commissioner of education or to a
school district that has a taxable wealth per student that entitles
the district to an allotment of state funds under Subchapter F,
Chapter 42, Education Code, or to the assistance organization
designated by such a school district.
SECTION 4. Subchapter E, Chapter 2175, Government Code, is
amended by adding Section 2175.306 to read as follows:
Sec. 2175.306. EXCEPTION FOR CERTAIN AGENCIES. This
chapter does not apply to the disposition of surplus computer
equipment by a state agency involved in the areas of health, human
services, or education, except for an agency to which Section
2175.304 applies. Those agencies shall give preference to
transferring the property to a public school, school district, or
assistance organization specified by the school district.
SECTION 5. 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 September 1, 2003.