BILL ANALYSIS

Senate Research Center	C.S.S.B. 1965
89R25939 SCR-D	By: King
	Local Government
	4/29/2025
	Committee Report (Substituted)

AUTHOR'S / SPONSOR'S STATEMENT OF INTENT

With few exceptions, Texas law requires the creation of a special district to be approved by either the state legislature or the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ). This approval process requires the special district to provide local notice and an opportunity for public participation. Special districts are circumventing these notice and approval requirements by annexing noncontiguous land miles away from the district's established boundaries. When this happens, the special district gains authority over the annexed land to assess taxes, issue bonds, and condemn property, even though the surrounding community may not be aware.

S.B. 1965 seeks to solve this problem by prohibiting certain special districts from annexing noncontiguous land located more than 200 feet from the special district's boundaries at the time of the proposed addition. The bill also requires special districts to provide additional notice, by certified mail, of a hearing to consider a petition to annex land.

S.B. 1965 applies to municipal utility districts (MUDs), special utility districts (SUDs), municipal management districts (MMDs), water improvement districts (WIDs), and water control and improvement districts (WCIDs).  

(Original Author's/Sponsor's Statement of Intent)

C.S.S.B. 1965 amends current law relating to requirements for the addition of noncontiguous territory to certain special districts.

RULEMAKING AUTHORITY

This bill does not expressly grant any additional rulemaking authority to a state officer, institution, or agency.

SECTION BY SECTION ANALYSIS

SECTION 1. Amends Section 49.302(d), Water Code, to require that a notice setting forth the time and place of the hearing and describing the area proposed to be annexed of the hearing be given, if applicable, in the manner prescribed by Section 49.3021 and to make nonsubstantive changes.

SECTION 2. Amends Subchapter J, Chapter 49, Water Code, by adding Section 49.3021, as follows:

Sec. 49.3021. ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS FOR CERTAIN PETITIONS TO ADD LAND TO CERTAIN DISTRICTS. (a) Provides that this section applies only to a district governed by certain chapters of the Water Code or the Local Government Code.

(b) Provides that this section applies only to a petition filed under Section 49.302 (Adding Land by Petition of Less Than All the Landowners) for the annexation of land that is noncontiguous to the district, located more than three miles from the boundaries of the district at the time the petition is filed, and located in a county other than any county in which the district is located.

(c) Requires a district that receives a petition described by Subsection (b), in addition to the notice requirements under Section 49.302, to provide notice of the hearing:

(1) in the manner required for notice of a regular district meeting;

(2) unless notice is waived by the county, to the county clerk of the county in which the land proposed to be annexed is located not later than the 30th day before the date of the hearing; and

(3) unless notice is waived by an owner, to each owner, other than a petitioner, of taxable property as shown by the most recent certified tax roll of the applicable central appraisal district in the area proposed to be annexed by certified mail not later than the 14th day before the date of the hearing.

(d) Requires a petitioner under this section, on the request of the commissioners court of the county in which the land proposed to be annexed is located, to submit to the commissioners court the petition and any other relevant information reasonably requested by the commissioners court relating to the proposed addition for review. Prohibits the board from receiving the proposed area as an addition to the district if the petitioner does not comply with the request of the county.

SECTION 3. Makes application of this Act prospective.

SECTION 4. Effective date: September 1, 2025. �