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.