85R8596 DMS-D
 
  By: Rodriguez of Bexar H.B. No. 1633
 
 
 
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 
AN ACT
  relating to bill payment assistance programs offered by certain
  municipalities.
         BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
         SECTION 1.  Section 1502.056(a), 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 but less than two million, the first lien against the
  revenue of a municipally owned 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 September 1, 2017.