By: Metcalf H.B. No. 3591
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to the allocation and use of certain funds for public
transportation projects.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Section 456.001, Transportation Code, is amended
by adding Subdivision (2-a) to read as follows:
(2-a) "Direct recipient" means a municipality that:
(A) receives money from the United States or this
state for public transportation through the department or the
Federal Transit Administration or the administration's successor;
and
(B) is located in an urbanized area with a
population of more than 200,000, according to the 2010 federal
decennial census:
(i) that includes an urban transit district
eligible to participate in the formula or discretionary program
provided by this chapter but does not include a transit authority;
and
(ii) that is adjacent to an urbanized area
with a population more than 4.9 million but less than 5 million,
according to the 2010 federal decennial census.
SECTION 2. Section 456.006(a), Transportation Code, is
amended to read as follows:
(a) A designated recipient that is a rural or urban transit
district or municipal transit department or a direct recipient may
use money from the formula or discretionary program and any local
funds for any transit-related activity.
SECTION 3. Section 456.022, Transportation Code, is amended
to read as follows:
Sec. 456.022. FORMULA ALLOCATION. (a) The commission shall
adopt rules establishing a formula allocating funds among
individual eligible public transportation providers. The formula
may take into account a transportation provider's performance, the
number of its riders, the need of residents in its service area for
public transportation, population, population density, land area,
and other factors established by the commission.
(b) The department may contract with a direct recipient to
administer a portion of the funding awarded to an urban transit
district. The department will divide the funding allocated by
formula to the urbanized area in which the urban transit district is
located between the urban transit district and the direct
recipient, in the same ratio used by the Federal Transit
Administration for its most recent allocation of funds to that
urbanized area under Section 5307, Federal Transit Act.
SECTION 4. This Act takes effect immediately if it receives
a vote of two-thirds of all the members elected to each house, as
provided by Section 39, Article III, Texas Constitution. If this
Act does not receive the vote necessary for immediate effect, this
Act takes effect September 1, 2015.