| TO: | Honorable Robert Puente, Chair, House Committee on Natural Resources |
| FROM: | John Keel, Director, Legislative Budget Board |
| IN RE: | HB2031 by Puente (Relating to the regulation of stormwater management by certain counties.), As Introduced |
The bill would change the population bracket regarding the applicability of which counties or districts may take necessary or proper action to comply with requirements of the stormwater permitting program under the national pollutant discharge elimination system. The bill would take effect immediately if it receives a two-thirds vote in each house; otherwise, it would take effect September 1, 2003.
Under current statute, the population bracket applies to Harris County and a water district or authority that has boundaries coterminous with Harris County and is authorized to provide stormwater drainage and flood control facilities. The change in population bracket would add the counties of Dallas, Tarrant, and Bexar, and districts with coterminous boundaries to those counties to the local government entities that may be authorized to regulate stormwater management.
Counties have authorization to collect fees to cover certain administrative costs, and counties that would be authorized to impose new regulations to control the quality of stormwater runoff would be able to collect fees to offset incremental costs of the required measures. Because counties have the infrastructure in place to approve plats and manage stormwater to some extent already, the incremental costs are expected to be minimal.
Bexar County anticipates implementation of the bill, and subsequently imposing a stormwater management fee, would enable the county to generate sufficient revenue to fund and operate a stormwater management program to appropriately meet the county's needs and maintain compliance with federal requirements. The county based its estimates on a reduced scale of what the City of San Antonio generates through fees for its stormwater management program.
| Source Agencies: | |
| LBB Staff: | JK, CL, DLBa
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