By: Watson S.B. No. 1644

(In the Senate - Filed March 9, 2017; March 22, 2017, read first time and referred to Committee on Transportation; April 24, 2017, reported adversely, with favorable Committee Substitute by the following vote: Yeas 9, Nays 0; April 24, 2017, sent to printer.) Click here to see the committee vote

COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE FOR S.B. No. 1644 By: Hancock

A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

AN ACT

relating to the operations of certain metropolitan rapid transit authorities.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

SECTION 1. Section 451.133(a), Transportation Code, is amended to read as follows:

(a) An authority may not spend for capital improvements money in excess of the amounts [total amount] allocated for major capital expenditures in the annual budgets [budget].

SECTION 2. Section 451.362, Transportation Code, is amended by amending Subsection (a) and adding Subsection (e) to read as follows:

(a) Notwithstanding other provisions of this chapter and except as provided by Subsections (c), [and] (d), and (e), the board, by order or resolution, may issue bonds that are secured by revenue or taxes of the authority if the bonds:

(1) have a term of not more than 12 months; and

(2) are payable only from revenue or taxes received on or after the date of their issuance and before the end of the fiscal year following the fiscal year in which the bonds are issued.

(e) In an authority confirmed before July 1, 1985, in which the principal municipality has a population of less than one million, bonds may have a term of not more than 15 years. The bonds are payable only from fee revenue received on or after the date the bonds are issued.

SECTION 3. Sections 451.455(h) and (i), Transportation Code, are amended to read as follows:

(h) The number of accidents per 100,000 miles is computed by multiplying the annual number of accidents by 100,000 and dividing the product by the number of miles for all service, including charter and nonrevenue service, [directly operated by the authority] for the same period. In this subsection, "accident" includes:

(1) a collision that involves an authority's revenue vehicle, other than a lawfully parked revenue vehicle, and that results in property damage, injury, or death; and

(2) an incident that results in the injury or death of a person on board or boarding or alighting from an authority's revenue vehicle.

(i) The number of miles between mechanical road calls is computed by dividing the annual number of miles for all service [directly operated by an authority], including charter and nonrevenue service, by the number of mechanical road calls for the same period. In this subsection, "mechanical road call" means an interruption in revenue service that is caused by revenue vehicle equipment failure that requires assistance from a person other than the vehicle operator before the vehicle can be operated normally.

SECTION 4. This Act takes effect September 1, 2017.

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