BILL ANALYSIS

 

 

Senate Research Center                                                                                                       H.B. 504

80R2279 JTS-F                                                                                         By: Naishtat (Wentworth)

                                                                                                 Transportation & Homeland Security

                                                                                                                                            4/14/2007

                                                                                                                                           Engrossed

 

 

AUTHOR'S / SPONSOR'S STATEMENT OF INTENT

 

The Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Capital Metro) operates its Special Transit Services (STS) to provide transportation for disabled persons unable to use fixed route bus services.  The Americans with Disabilities Act requires that Capital Metro provide unlimited paratransit services to all locations within 3/4 mile of regular fixed bus service.  In addition to the federal requirement, Capital Metro provides these services to all locations within its service area on a first-come, first-served basis. 

 

Capital Metro also is required by state law to provide paratransit service in municipalities that have withdrawn from its service area--Pflugerville, Cedar Park, Westlake Hills, and Rollingwood.  However, the law also provides that these cities are required to pay for only 50 percent of the operating costs to provide those services in those municipalities.  In the 2006 fiscal year, Capital Metro provided 5,296 STS trips in the withdrawn cities, with a total operating cost of $235,521.  Because state law requires that these cities reimburse Capital Metro for only half of these costs, their reimbursement was $117,760.

 

H.B. 504 requires municipalities that have withdrawn from a metropolitan rapid transit authority’s service area to pay the full amount of the operating costs for these services.

 

RULEMAKING AUTHORITY

 

This bill does not expressly grant any additional rulemaking authority to a state officer, institution, or agency.

 

SECTION BY SECTION ANALYSIS

 

SECTION 1. Amends Section 451.616(a), Transportation Code, to require the comptroller of public accounts to withhold from the amount of sales and use tax revenue refunded to a unit of election that has withdrawn from a metropolitan rapid transit authority the full amount, rather than one-half, of the difference between the cost of providing services to persons with disabilities in the unit of election and the fares charged during the period in which the sales and use tax was collected and to remit this amount to the authority providing the services.

 

SECTION 2.  Effective date: upon passage or September 1, 2007.