BILL ANALYSIS

H.B. 524

By: Brown

Land & Resource Management

Committee Report (Unamended)

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

Interested parties contend that certain provisions of law require a municipality to provide services to certain citizens living within municipal boundaries and that such citizens may petition for disannexation if the municipality fails to provide such services.  The interested parties assert that the required municipal services are not adequately defined, making it difficult to hold a municipality accountable to its citizens.  H.B. 524 seeks to address this issue by establishing provisions relating to a court order to disannex an area from a municipality.

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

H.B. 524 amends the Local Government Code to include a court finding that a municipality failed to perform its obligations in accordance with municipal annexation provisions relating to the provision of services to an annexed area, rather than a court finding that a municipality failed to perform in good faith, as a contingent factor by which a district court hearing a case regarding the disannexation of an area from a municipality is required to enter an order disannexing the area.  

EFFECTIVE DATE

On passage, or, if the bill does not receive the necessary vote, September 1, 2011.