BILL ANALYSIS

H.B. 4059

By: Oliveira

Urban Affairs

Committee Report (Unamended)

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

Interested parties note that over a decade ago, the City of Brownsville embarked on an aggressive annexation strategy through which the city acquired new lands contiguous to the city but connected only by a thin strip of land that, in many cases, extends far beyond conventional city limits. It has been asserted by smaller communities near Brownsville, such as Laguna Vista and San Benito, that the annexation practices of Brownsville have led to issues in providing public safety and emergency services in those areas and has prevented the expansion of those smaller communities. H.B. 4059 seeks to address these issues.

CRIMINAL JUSTICE IMPACT

It is the committee's opinion that this bill does not expressly create a criminal offense, increase the punishment for an existing criminal offense or category of offenses, or change the eligibility of a person for community supervision, parole, or mandatory supervision.

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. 4059 amends the Local Government Code to establish that the extraterritorial jurisdiction of a municipality in a county that contains an international border and borders the Gulf of Mexico terminates two miles from the extraterritorial jurisdiction of a neighboring municipality if extension of the extraterritorial jurisdiction beyond that limit would completely surround the corporate boundaries or extraterritorial jurisdiction of the neighboring municipality and limit the growth of the neighboring municipality by precluding the expansion of the neighboring municipality's extraterritorial jurisdiction. The bill requires a municipality to release extraterritorial jurisdiction as necessary to comply with that establishment.

H.B. 4059 prohibits a municipality in a county that contains an international border and borders the Gulf of Mexico from annexing an area that would cause another municipality to be entirely surrounded by the corporate limits or extraterritorial jurisdiction of the annexing municipality.

H.B. 4059 applies to any annexation that is not final before the bill's effective date.

EFFECTIVE DATE

On passage, or, if the bill does not receive the necessary vote, September 1, 2015.