| |
| |
|
|
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
|
|
|
AN ACT
|
|
|
relating to the transfer of a certificate of convenience and |
|
|
necessity in certain municipalities. |
|
|
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS: |
|
|
SECTION 1. Subchapter B, Chapter 552, Local Government |
|
|
Code, is amended by adding Section 552.024 to read as follows: |
|
|
Sec. 552.024. TRANSFER OF CERTIFICATE OF CONVENIENCE AND |
|
|
NECESSITY IN CERTAIN MUNICIPALITIES. (a) This section applies to a |
|
|
municipality that: |
|
|
(1) has a population of not more than 2,500; |
|
|
(2) is located in a county that: |
|
|
(A) has a population of 1.7 million or more; and |
|
|
(B) has two municipalities with a population of |
|
|
300,000 or more; and |
|
|
(3) is served by a public utility that: |
|
|
(A) provides service to the entire municipality; |
|
|
and |
|
|
(B) charges rates for 5,000 gallons of water for |
|
|
residential customers that are at least 50 percent higher than the |
|
|
rates charged by a municipally owned utility that serves another |
|
|
part of the county in which the municipality is located. |
|
|
(b) Notwithstanding any other law, on application by a |
|
|
municipality described by Subsection (a), the agency with authority |
|
|
over certificates of convenience and necessity for water and sewer |
|
|
service shall transfer at such time and under such circumstances as |
|
|
specified by a trial court a certificate of convenience and |
|
|
necessity for water and sewer service from a public utility to the |
|
|
municipality for the public utility's service area located in the |
|
|
municipality's corporate limits, if the municipality: |
|
|
(1) has instituted a condemnation proceeding under |
|
|
Chapter 21, Property Code, to acquire the property of the public |
|
|
utility's water and sewer system in the municipality's corporate |
|
|
limits; and |
|
|
(2) will possess the financial, managerial, and |
|
|
technical capability to provide continuous and adequate water and |
|
|
sewer service to the area to the satisfaction of or in accordance |
|
|
with the orders of a trial court at the time of transfer. |
|
|
(c) The transfer of the certificate shall not be effective |
|
|
unless: |
|
|
(1) a judgment that transfers the real property of the |
|
|
public utility to the municipality becomes final and is not subject |
|
|
to further appeal; and |
|
|
(2) the municipality has paid to the public utility |
|
|
the fair market value compensation due, as set by agreement or as |
|
|
ordered by a court judgment, for that taking of real property. |
|
|
(d) This section does not expand, restrict, or otherwise |
|
|
alter the law with regard to a municipality's right to exercise the |
|
|
power of eminent domain under Chapter 21, Property Code. |
|
|
SECTION 2. The changes in law made by this Act apply only to |
|
|
a condemnation proceeding in which the petition is filed on or after |
|
|
September 1, 2011. A condemnation proceeding in which the petition |
|
|
is filed before September 1, 2011, is governed by the law in effect |
|
|
on the date the petition was filed, and that law is continued in |
|
|
effect for that purpose. |
|
|
SECTION 3. 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, 2013. |