82R4465 JTS-F
By: Guillen, Raymond H.B. No. 578
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to state financing of public transportation.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Section 456.003, Transportation Code, is amended
to read as follows:
Sec. 456.003. PARTICIPATION INELIGIBILITY. A transit
authority is ineligible to participate in the formula or
discretionary program provided by this chapter unless the authority
was created under Chapter 453 or former Article 1118z, Revised
Statutes, by a municipality having a population of less than
200,000 at the time the authority is created.
SECTION 2. Section 456.006, Transportation Code, is amended
by adding Subsections (b-1) and (b-2) to read as follows:
(b-1) Notwithstanding Subsection (b), an urban transit
district that was not included in an urbanized area containing a
transit authority according to the 2000 federal decennial census
but, as a result of the 2010 federal decennial census urban and
rural classification, is included in an urbanized area that
contains one or more transit authorities may receive money from the
formula or discretionary program in an amount that does not exceed
the amount of funds allocated to the district during the fiscal
biennium ending August 31, 2011. This subsection expires August 31,
2018.
(b-2) The population of a municipality that was considered
part of an urban transit district for purposes of the state transit
funding formula for the fiscal biennium ending August 31, 2011, but
that is included in a large urbanized area as a result of the 2010
federal decennial census, continues to be considered part of the
urban transit district for purposes of the state transit funding
formula. This subsection expires August 31, 2018.
SECTION 3. Subchapter B, Chapter 456, Transportation Code,
is amended by adding Section 456.0221 to read as follows:
Sec. 456.0221. ALLOCATION TO CERTAIN RECIPIENTS AFFECTED BY
NATURAL DISASTER. (a) The commission shall consider as an urban
transit district for the purposes of the allocation of funds under
this chapter a designated recipient:
(1) that received money under the formula as an urban
transit district for the fiscal biennium ending August 31, 2011;
(2) whose population according to the most recent
decennial census is less than 50,000; and
(3) whose population loss over the preceding 10-year
period is primarily the result of a natural disaster.
(b) This section expires August 31, 2018.
SECTION 4. This Act takes effect September 1, 2011.