The bill raises the penalties for county officers and employees who knowingly break the county competitive bidding rules, including splitting purchases into smaller pieces to dodge bidding. Purchase-splitting moves from a Class B to a Class A misdemeanor and becomes a state jail felony over $1 million or a third-degree felony at $5 million or more, while other knowing violations move from Class C to Class B and climb with the contract's size. It applies only to conduct on or after September 1, 2025, so county staff face stiffer consequences for bid-rigging from that date forward.
Labels
Labels: GOT HALFWAY. Passed the Senate on Apr 30, 2025. Died in the House: never got out of the Intergovernmental Affairs committee.
relating to penalties for certain offenses involving county
competitive bidding requirements; increasing criminal penalties.
WHAT IT DOES
Splitting purchases to dodge bidding costs more.
The bill raises the penalties for county officers and employees who knowingly break the county competitive bidding rules, including splitting purchases into smaller pieces to dodge bidding. Purchase-splitting moves from a Class B to a Class A misdemeanor and becomes a state jail felony over $1 million or a third-degree felony at $5 million or more, while other knowing violations move from Class C to Class B and climb with the contract's size. It applies only to conduct on or after September 1, 2025, so county staff face stiffer consequences for bid-rigging from that date forward.
CHARGES
[ ] NONE FOUND
TOTAL
No significant fiscal implication to the State is anticipated.
Senator Bettencourt moved that Senate Rule 7.18 and the Constitutional Rule requiring bills to be read on three several days be suspended and that SB 2046 be placed on its third reading and final passage. The motion prevailed by the following vote: Yeas 29, Nays 2.
Published stock of positions for this vote, except where marked derived.
Yea: 29 (published)
Nay: 2 (published)
Present, not voting: Not printed
Absent: 0 (derived from named list)
Excused: 0 (derived from named list)
Senate journal. Source snapshot 2026-10-19, Central time.
Names were not printed for yea. Only the named positions are included in member records.
Voice vote. No numeric tally or individual yeas are inferred.
Sources
Senator Bettencourt moved to suspend the regular order of business to take up for consideration SB 2046 at this time on its second reading: SB 2046, Relating to penalties for certain offenses involving county competitive bidding requirements; increasing criminal penalties. The motion prevailed. Senators Cook and Eckhardt asked to be recorded as voting "Nay" on suspension of the regular order of business. The bill was read second time and was passed to engrossment by a viva voce vote.
Published stock of positions for this vote, except where marked derived.
Yea: Not printed
Nay: Not printed
Present, not voting: Not printed
Absent: Not printed
Excused: Not printed
Senate journal. Source snapshot 2026-10-19, Central time.
Witnesses3
For
2
Against
0
On
1
Names
For
Self1 registration
Texas Public Policy Foundation1 registration
On
Office of the Attorney General1 registration
Sources
3 parsed registrations across the loaded witness lists.
Derived stock of witness registrations. Repeated appearances count separately. Organizations and self-representation appear as printed.
House committee · Intergovernmental Affairs · Final status: Died in committee
Senate committee · Local Government · Committee vote 4 aye, 1 nay, 2 absent · Out of committee
Subjects
County Government--Employees/Officers
Criminal Procedure--Sentencing & Punishment
Purchasing--Local
COMPETITIVE BIDDING
Text
The text as introduced · 342 words
89R15366 CS-D
By: Bettencourt
S.B. No. 2046
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to penalties for certain offenses involving county
competitive bidding requirements; increasing criminal penalties.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Section 262.034, Local Government Code, is
amended to read as follows:
Sec. 262.034. CRIMINAL PENALTIES. (a) A county officer or
employee commits an offense if the officer or employee
intentionally or knowingly makes or authorizes separate,
sequential, or component purchases to avoid the competitive bidding
requirements of Section 262.023. An offense under this subsection
is a Class A [ B ] misdemeanor , except that the offense is:
(1) a state jail felony if the purchases have an
aggregated value of over $1 million but less than $5 million; and
(2) a felony of the third degree if the purchases have
an aggregated value of $5 million or more .
(b) [ (c) ] A county officer or employee commits an offense if
the officer or employee intentionally or knowingly violates this
subchapter, other than by conduct described by Subsection (a). An
offense under this subsection is a Class B [ C ] misdemeanor , except
that the offense is:
(1) a Class A misdemeanor if the conduct involves a
contract that has a value of over $1 million but less than $5
million; and
(2) a state jail felony if the conduct involves a
contract that has a value of $5 million or more .
SECTION 2. The changes in law made by this Act apply only to
an offense committed on or after the effective date of this Act. An
offense committed before the effective date of this Act is governed
by the law in effect on the date the offense was committed, and the
former law is continued in effect for that purpose. For purposes of
this section, an offense was committed before the effective date of
this Act if any element of the offense occurred before that date.
SECTION 3. This Act takes effect September 1, 2025.
Monitoring 