Bettencourt Bill’s City-Consent Rule Skips Counties Of 3.3M Or More

The text as introduced · 666 words

89R9742 JTZ-D

By: Bettencourt
S.B. No. 1503

A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

AN ACT

relating to the expansion of the territory of an emergency services

district into the territory of a municipality.

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

SECTION 1. Section 775.051(a), Health and Safety Code, is

amended to read as follows:

(a) Qualified voters who own taxable real property in a

defined territory that is not included in a district may file a

petition with the secretary of the board requesting the inclusion

of the territory in the district. The petition must :

(1) be signed by at least 50 qualified voters who own

taxable real property in the territory or a majority of those

voters, whichever is less ; and

(2) show the name of each municipality whose consent

must be obtained under Section 775.0515 .

SECTION 2. Subchapter D, Chapter 775, Health and Safety

Code, is amended by adding Section 775.0515 to read as follows:

Sec. 775.0515. EXPANSION OF DISTRICT THAT INCLUDES

MUNICIPAL TERRITORY. (a) Before territory in a municipality's

limits or extraterritorial jurisdiction may be annexed into a

district under Section 775.051, a written request to be annexed

into the district must be presented to the municipality's governing

body after the petition is filed under Section 775.051. Except as

provided by Subsection (c), that territory may not be annexed into

the district unless the municipality's governing body gives its

written consent on or before the 60th day after the date the

municipality receives the request.

(b) If the municipality's governing body does not consent to

annexation within the 60-day period prescribed by Subsection (a), a

majority of the qualified voters and the owners of at least 50

percent of the territory in the municipality's limits or

extraterritorial jurisdiction that would have been annexed into the

district may petition the governing body to make fire control and

emergency medical and ambulance services available in the

territory. The petition must be submitted to the governing body not

later than the 90th day after the date the municipality receives the

request under Subsection (a).

(c) If the municipality's governing body refuses or fails to

act on the petition requesting fire control and emergency medical

and ambulance services within six months after the date on which the

petition submitted under Subsection (b) is received, the governing

body's refusal or failure to act constitutes consent for the

territory that is the subject of the petition to be annexed into the

district.

(d) If the territory proposed to be annexed into the

district will include territory designated by a municipality as an

industrial district under Section 42.044, Local Government Code,

consent to include the industrial district must be obtained from

the municipality's governing body in the same manner provided by

this section for obtaining consent to annex territory within the

limits or extraterritorial jurisdiction of a municipality.

(e) If the municipality's governing body consents to

annexation of territory within its limits or extraterritorial

jurisdiction, or in an industrial district, the territory may be

annexed into the district in the same manner as other territory is

annexed under this chapter.

(f) A governing body's consent to annex territory into the

district expires six months after the date the consent is given.

(g) This section does not apply if territory proposed to be

annexed into the district is in the unincorporated area of a county

with a population of 3.3 million or more.

SECTION 3. The changes in law made by this Act apply only to

a petition for the expansion of an emergency services district

filed with the board of the emergency services district on or after

the effective date of this Act. A petition pending before the board

of an emergency services district on the effective date of this Act

is governed by the law in effect at the time the petition was filed,

and that law is continued in effect for that purpose.

SECTION 4. This Act takes effect September 1, 2025.