By: Van de Putte  S.B. No. 1002
         (In the Senate - Filed February 28, 2011; March 16, 2011,
  read first time and referred to Committee on Intergovernmental
  Relations; April 11, 2011, reported favorably by the following
  vote:  Yeas 5, Nays 0; April 11, 2011, sent to printer.)
 
 
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 
AN ACT
 
  relating to the designation of program costs for providing bill
  payment assistance to certain military veterans as a necessary
  operating expense that is a first lien against revenue of certain
  electric and gas utilities' revenue securing certain public
  securities or obligations.
         BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
         SECTION 1.  Subsection (a), Section 1502.056, Government
  Code, is amended to read as follows:
         (a)  If the revenue of a utility system, park, or swimming
  pool secures the payment of public securities issued or obligations
  incurred under this chapter, each expense of operation and
  maintenance, including all salaries, labor, materials, interest,
  repairs and extensions necessary to provide efficient service, and
  each proper item of expense, is a first lien against that
  revenue.  For a municipality with a population of more than one
  million, the first lien against the revenue of a municipally owned
  electric or gas utility system that secures the payment of public
  securities issued or obligations incurred under this chapter also
  applies to funding, as a necessary operations expense, for a bill
  payment assistance program for utility system customers who:
               (1)  have been threatened with disconnection from
  service for nonpayment of bills and who have been determined by the
  municipality to be low-income customers; or
               (2)  are military veterans who have significantly
  decreased abilities to regulate their bodies' core temperatures
  because of severe burns received in combat.
         SECTION 2.  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, 2011.
 
  * * * * *