82R10460 MXM-D
By: Cain H.B. No. 2952
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to municipal, county, and school district and other
special district budgets.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. DEFINITION. (a) In this Act, "local government"
means:
(1) a county;
(2) a municipality;
(3) a school district or other special district; or
(4) any other local government or political
subdivision of this state.
SECTION 2. LIMIT ON GROWTH OF BUDGET. (a) The governing
body of a local government may not adopt a budget that exceeds the
revenue adopted in the previous year by the lesser of:
(1) the growth in this state's gross state product as
determined under Section 3 of this Act; or
(2) population growth in the local government plus
inflation as determined under Sections 4 and 5 of this Act.
(b) The local government may exclude money received from the
federal government in calculating the revenue.
SECTION 3. GROSS STATE PRODUCT. The comptroller shall
determine the estimated rate of growth of the Texas gross state
product using information provided by the Bureau of Economic
Analysis of the United States Department of Commerce or its
successor in function and by other sources the comptroller
considers reliable.
SECTION 4. POPULATION GROWTH. The comptroller shall
determine the rate of growth of the local government's population.
SECTION 5. INFLATION. The comptroller shall determine the
rate of monetary inflation in this state based on the average rate
of change during the preceding six years of the effective consumer
price index for this state. For purposes of this Act, the effective
consumer price index for this state is the average of the consumer
price indexes, as determined by the United States Department of
Labor, for:
(1) the Houston metropolitan area; and
(2) the Dallas/Fort Worth metropolitan area.
SECTION 6. REFERENDUM. The voters of a local government may
nullify Section 2 of this Act if a majority of the voters voting at a
referendum on that issue favor nullification.
SECTION 7. TRANSITION. This Act applies only to a local
government budget adopted on or after the effective date of this
Act. A local government budget adopted before the effective date of
this Act is governed by the law in effect when the budget was
adopted, and the former law is continued in effect for that purpose.
SECTION 8. EFFECTIVE DATE. This Act takes effect September
1, 2011.