TO:	Honorable Tom Craddick, Chair, House Committee on Land & Resource Management
FROM:	John McGeady, Assistant Director     Sarah Keyton, Assistant Director Legislative Budget Board
IN RE:	HB4689 by Talarico (Relating to the creation of the Round Rock Municipal Utility District No. 1; granting a limited power of eminent domain; providing authority to issue bonds; providing authority to impose assessments, fees, and taxes.), Committee Report 1st House, Substituted

The Legislative Budget Board, in cooperation with the Texas Water Development Board (TWDB) and the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ), has determined that:

This bill creates Round Rock Municipal Utility District No. 1 (District) with the powers and duties of a standard municipal utility district under Water Code Chapters 49 and 54.

Population - The very specific description of the proposed boundaries does not allow staff to develop precise population estimates.
 
Population growth in the specific area since the 2010 census is unknown. The 2010 population estimate for areas of Williamson County served by small water systems or private wells (County-Other) was 29,929. The Williamson County-Other population projections adopted for the 2022 State Water Plan projects the population to be 39,660 in 2020 and 26,295 in 2030.
 
Location - The proposed district's initial boundaries are described with a combination of Original Texas Land Surveys, Official Public Records of Williamson County and metes and bounds. Due to the complexity of these boundaries for the various subareas of the district, staff is only able to determine the general location of the proposed district.
 
The proposed district's area is approximately 0.56 square miles in central Williamson County, located southeast of the City of Georgetown, and northwest of the City of Round Rock. The proposed district appears to be west of Texas State Highway 130 and east of County Road 110.

Comments on Powers/Duties Different from Similar Types of Districts:
House Committee Substitute:
The HCS removes from the Introduced version of the bill the language that specifies that any agreement between the District and a municipality related to the municipality's consent to the creation of the District is valid and enforceable. The HCS also removes the language that specifies that on the issuance of bonds by the District, the District is considered to have waived sovereign immunity to suit by a municipality for the purpose of adjudicating a claim for breach of an agreement described by this section; the HCS does not make any other changes to the Introduced version of the bill.

Introduced:
The District must receive consent to the creation of the District from each municipality in whose corporate limits or extraterritorial jurisdiction the District is located prior to holding a confirmation election; the bill grants the District authority for road projects; the bill specifies that at the time of issuance, the total principal amount of bonds or other obligations issued or incurred to finance road projects and payable from ad valorem taxes may not exceed one-fourth of the assessed value of real property in the District; and if the bill does not receive a two-thirds vote of all members elected to each house, the District may not exercise the power of eminent domain.

Overlapping Services: TCEQ does not have mapping information for water and/or wastewater providers because this function was transferred from the TCEQ to the Public Utility Commission on September 1, 2014. As a result, TCEQ is unaware of possible overlapping service providers.

TCEQ's Supervision: As with general law districts, the TCEQ will have general supervisory authority, including bond review authority and review of financial reports.

Water Use - Within Williamson County, 78% of the total water use was supplied by surface water, and municipal was the largest volume water use category comprising 96% of the county total water use in 2016. The water source the proposed district might pursue is unknown.