By: Dean (Senate Sponsor - Hughes) H.B. No. 3203
         (In the Senate - Received from the House May 6, 2019;
  May 10, 2019, read first time and referred to Committee on
  Intergovernmental Relations; May 17, 2019, reported favorably by
  the following vote:  Yeas 7, Nays 0; May 17, 2019, sent to printer.)
Click here to see the committee vote
 
 
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 
AN ACT
 
  relating to the division of certain emergency services districts.
         BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
         SECTION 1.  Section 775.221, Health and Safety Code, is
  amended to read as follows:
         Sec. 775.221.  AUTHORITY TO DIVIDE DISTRICT. (a) This
  subchapter applies only to a district located wholly in:
               (1)  a county with a population of 20,000 or less; or
               (2)  a county with a population of more than 30,000 but
  less than 41,000 that is adjacent to a county with a population of
  more than 200,000 but less than 220,000.
         (b)  The board of a district described by Subsection (a) 
  [located wholly in one county with a population of 20,000 or less]
  may create a new district by disannexing territory from the
  existing district and ordering a new district to be created in the
  disannexed territory in the manner provided by this subchapter.
         SECTION 2.  Section 775.223(c), Health and Safety Code, is
  amended to read as follows:
         (c)  The [If the board finds that the petition contains the
  number of signatures required under Section 775.222(a), the] board
  shall approve the petition not later than the 10th day after the
  date of the hearing if the board finds that:
               (1)  the petition contains the number of signatures
  required under Section 775.222(a); and
               (2)  the proposed division is feasible.
         SECTION 3.  The change in law made by this Act to Section
  775.223(c), Health and Safety Code, applies only to the division of
  an emergency services district the petition for which is submitted
  on or after the effective date of this Act. The division of an
  emergency services district the petition for which is submitted
  before the effective date of this Act is governed by the law in
  effect on the date the petition is submitted, and the former law is
  continued in effect for that purpose.
         SECTION 4.  This Act takes effect September 1, 2019.
 
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