82R4465 JTS-F
 
  By: Guillen, Raymond H.B. No. 578
 
 
 
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 
AN ACT
 
  relating to state financing of public transportation.
         
         BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
         
         SECTION 1.  Section 456.003, Transportation Code, is amended
 
  to read as follows:
         
         Sec. 456.003.  PARTICIPATION INELIGIBILITY. A transit
 
  authority is ineligible to participate in the formula or
 
  discretionary program provided by this chapter unless the authority
 
  was created under Chapter 453 or former Article 1118z, Revised
 
  Statutes, by a municipality having a population of less than
 
  200,000 at the time the authority is created.
         
         SECTION 2.  Section 456.006, Transportation Code, is amended
 
  by adding Subsections (b-1) and (b-2) to read as follows:
         
         (b-1)  Notwithstanding Subsection (b), an urban transit
 
  district that was not included in an urbanized area containing a
 
  transit authority according to the 2000 federal decennial census
 
  but, as a result of the 2010 federal decennial census urban and
 
  rural classification, is included in an urbanized area that
 
  contains one or more transit authorities may receive money from the
 
  formula or discretionary program in an amount that does not exceed
 
  the amount of funds allocated to the district during the fiscal
 
  biennium ending August 31, 2011. This subsection expires August 31,
 
  2018.
         
         (b-2)  The population of a municipality that was considered
 
  part of an urban transit district for purposes of the state transit
 
  funding formula for the fiscal biennium ending August 31, 2011, but
 
  that is included in a large urbanized area as a result of the 2010
 
  federal decennial census, continues to be considered part of the
 
  urban transit district for purposes of the state transit funding
 
  formula. This subsection expires August 31, 2018.
         
         SECTION 3.  Subchapter B, Chapter 456, Transportation Code,
 
  is amended by adding Section 456.0221 to read as follows:
         
         Sec. 456.0221.  ALLOCATION TO CERTAIN RECIPIENTS AFFECTED BY
 
  NATURAL DISASTER. (a)  The commission shall consider as an urban
 
  transit district for the purposes of the allocation of funds under
 
  this chapter a designated recipient:
               
               (1)  that received money under the formula as an urban
 
  transit district for the fiscal biennium ending August 31, 2011;
               
               (2)  whose population according to the most recent
 
  decennial census is less than 50,000; and
               
               (3)  whose population loss over the preceding 10-year
 
  period is primarily the result of a natural disaster.
         
         (b)  This section expires August 31, 2018.
         
         SECTION 4.  This Act takes effect September 1, 2011.