By: Paul (Senate Sponsor - Taylor) H.B. No. 303

(In the Senate - Received from the House April 3, 2019; April 4, 2019, read first time and referred to Committee on Natural Resources & Economic Development; May 6, 2019, reported adversely, with favorable Committee Substitute by the following vote: Yeas 11, Nays 0; May 6, 2019, sent to printer.) Click here to see the committee vote

COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE FOR H.B. No. 303 By: Miles

A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

AN ACT

relating to entities eligible to authorize the creation of spaceport development corporations and to the powers of those corporations.

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

SECTION 1. Section 507.003, Local Government Code, is amended to read as follows:

Sec. 507.003. AUTHORITY TO CREATE CORPORATION BY ELIGIBLE ENTITIES. The following entities are eligible to authorize the creation under this subtitle of a spaceport development corporation:

(1) a county; [or]

(2) a municipality with a population of two million or more; or

(3) a combination of one or more municipalities and one or more counties.

SECTION 2. Section 507.051, Local Government Code, is amended by amending Subsection (b) and adding Subsection (b-1) to read as follows:

(b) If a single county authorizes the creation of a spaceport development corporation, the commissioners court of the county shall appoint the directors of the corporation. If a single municipality authorizes the creation of a spaceport development corporation under Section 507.003(2), the governing body of the municipality shall appoint the directors of the corporation.

(b-1) If more than one political subdivision authorizes the creation of a spaceport development corporation, the governing bodies of the political subdivisions shall appoint the directors through written agreement between the governing bodies.

SECTION 3. Section 507.103, Local Government Code, is amended by amending Subsection (a) and adding Subsection (a-1) to read as follows:

(a) This section does not apply to a spaceport development corporation whose authorizing entity is a single municipality with a population of two million or more.

(a-1) A spaceport development corporation may exercise the power of eminent domain to acquire property for a spaceport, including the power to:

(1) acquire fee title in land condemned;

(2) relocate or modify a railroad, utility line, pipeline, or other facility that may interfere with a spaceport; or

(3) impose a reasonable restriction on using the surface of the property for mineral development if the corporation does not own the mineral rights.

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, 2019.

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