| |
| |
|
|
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
|
|
|
AN ACT
|
|
|
relating to the allocation and use of certain funds for public |
|
|
transportation projects. |
|
|
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS: |
|
|
SECTION 1. Section 456.001, Transportation Code, is amended |
|
|
by adding Subdivision (2-a) to read as follows: |
|
|
(2-a) "Direct recipient" means a municipality that: |
|
|
(A) receives money from the United States or this |
|
|
state for public transportation through the department or the |
|
|
Federal Transit Administration or the administration's successor; |
|
|
and |
|
|
(B) is located in an urbanized area with a |
|
|
population of more than 200,000, according to the 2010 federal |
|
|
decennial census: |
|
|
(i) that includes an urban transit district |
|
|
eligible to participate in the formula or discretionary program |
|
|
provided by this chapter but does not include a transit authority; |
|
|
and |
|
|
(ii) that is adjacent to an urbanized area |
|
|
with a population more than 4.9 million but less than 5 million, |
|
|
according to the 2010 federal decennial census. |
|
|
SECTION 2. Section 456.006(a), Transportation Code, is |
|
|
amended to read as follows: |
|
|
(a) A designated recipient that is a rural or urban transit |
|
|
district or municipal transit department or a direct recipient may |
|
|
use money from the formula or discretionary program and any local |
|
|
funds for any transit-related activity. |
|
|
SECTION 3. Section 456.022, Transportation Code, is amended |
|
|
to read as follows: |
|
|
Sec. 456.022. FORMULA ALLOCATION. (a) The commission shall |
|
|
adopt rules establishing a formula allocating funds among |
|
|
individual eligible public transportation providers. The formula |
|
|
may take into account a transportation provider's performance, the |
|
|
number of its riders, the need of residents in its service area for |
|
|
public transportation, population, population density, land area, |
|
|
and other factors established by the commission. |
|
|
(b) The department may contract with a direct recipient to |
|
|
administer a portion of the funding awarded to an urban transit |
|
|
district. The department will divide the funding allocated by |
|
|
formula to the urbanized area in which the urban transit district is |
|
|
located between the urban transit district and the direct |
|
|
recipient, in the same ratio used by the Federal Transit |
|
|
Administration for its most recent allocation of funds to that |
|
|
urbanized area under Section 5307, Federal Transit Act. |
|
|
SECTION 4. 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, 2015. |