By: Schwertner  S.B. No. 387
         (In the Senate - Filed January 22, 2021; March 9, 2021, read
  first time and referred to Committee on Water, Agriculture & Rural
  Affairs; March 30, 2021, reported adversely, with favorable
  Committee Substitute by the following vote:  Yeas 9, Nays 0;
  March 30, 2021, sent to printer.)
Click here to see the committee vote
 
  COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE FOR S.B. No. 387 By:  Perry
 
 
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 
AN ACT
 
  relating to the appeal of rates for water or sewer service charged
  to certain customers of a municipality.
         BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
         SECTION 1.  Section 13.043, Water Code, is amended by
  amending Subsection (b) and adding Subsection (b-4) to read as
  follows:
         (b)  Ratepayers of the following entities may appeal the
  decision of the governing body of the entity affecting their water,
  drainage, or sewer rates to the utility commission:
               (1)  a nonprofit water supply or sewer service
  corporation created and operating under Chapter 67;
               (2)  a utility under the jurisdiction of a municipality
  inside the corporate limits of the municipality;
               (3)  a municipally owned utility, if the ratepayers
  reside outside the corporate limits of the municipality, including
  a decision of a governing body that results in an increase in rates
  when the municipally owned utility takes over the provision of
  service to ratepayers previously served by another retail public
  utility;
               (4)  a district or authority created under Article III,
  Section 52, or Article XVI, Section 59, of the Texas Constitution
  that provides water or sewer service to household users; and
               (5)  a utility owned by an affected county, if the
  ratepayer's rates are actually or may be adversely affected.  For
  the purposes of this section ratepayers who reside outside the
  boundaries of the district or authority shall be considered a
  separate class from ratepayers who reside inside those boundaries.
         (b-4)  Subsection (b)(3) does not apply to a municipally
  owned utility that takes over the provision of service to
  ratepayers previously served by another retail public utility if
  the municipally owned utility:
               (1)  takes over the service at the request of the
  ratepayer;
               (2)  takes over the service in the manner provided by
  Subchapter H; or 
               (3)  is required to take over the service by state law,
  an order of the commission, or an order of the utility commission. 
         SECTION 2.  (a)  Notwithstanding Section 13.043(c), Water
  Code, a ratepayer described by Section 13.043(b), Water Code, as
  amended by this Act, may use the appeal process in Section 13.043,
  Water Code, to appeal increased rates charged to the ratepayer by a
  municipally owned utility by filing a petition for review with the
  Public Utility Commission of Texas and the municipally owned
  utility not later than December 1, 2021, if the municipally owned
  utility began providing service to the ratepayer on or after
  September 1, 2016.
         (b)  Subsection (a) of this section applies only to rates
  that the municipally owned utility has not changed since the
  municipally owned utility began providing service to the ratepayer.
         SECTION 3.  This Act takes effect September 1, 2021.
 
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