BILL ANALYSIS

H.J.R. 137

By: Springer

County Affairs

Committee Report (Unamended)

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

An amendment to the Texas Constitution was adopted more than 25 years ago giving rural counties with less than 5,000 citizens the flexibility to construct and maintain private roads. Interested parties report that in the last decade, a certain rural county built a prison that subsequently caused the county to exceed the population threshold. Such parties contend that this case highlights the need to raise the population cap under which a county is authorized to construct and maintain private roads. H.J.R. 137 seeks to ensure the flexibility of affected rural counties to construct and maintain private roads by proposing an increase in the statutory population cap to 7,500.

RULEMAKING AUTHORITY

It is the committee's opinion that this resolution does not expressly grant any additional rulemaking authority to a state officer, department, agency, or institution.

ANALYSIS

H.J.R. 137 proposes an amendment to the Texas Constitution to raise the cap on a county's population from 5,000 to 7,500 for the county to be authorized to construct and maintain private roads, if it imposes a reasonable charge for the work.

ELECTION DATE

The constitutional amendment proposed by this joint resolution will be submitted to the voters at an election to be held November 5, 2013.