By: Morales Shaw H.B. No. 3853
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to authorizing a change in the amount of certain
administrative, civil, and criminal penalties for violating
certain statutes under the jurisdiction of, rules or orders adopted
by, or licenses, permits, or certificates issued by the Texas
Commission on Environmental Quality.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Subchapter A, Chapter 7, Water Code, is amended
by adding Section 7.007 to read as follows:
Sec. 7.007. ADJUSTMENT OF AMOUNT OF PENALTIES. (a) Not
later than August 1 of each year, the commission shall compute,
adopt, and publish a revised penalty amount for each penalty
imposed by this chapter to account for inflation since the penalty
was adopted.
(b) Notwithstanding any other law, the amount of a penalty
assessed under this chapter must be the greater of:
(1) the amount specified under the section imposing
the penalty; or
(2) the amount computed under Subsection (a) minus 10
percent of that amount.
(c) In making the computation under Subsection (a), the
commission shall:
(1) consider the Consumer Price Index for All Urban
Consumers, or its successor in function, published by the United
States Bureau of Labor Statistics;
(2) use as the base year for each penalty imposed by
this chapter the year the penalty was enacted; and
(3) adjust the amount of each penalty imposed by this
chapter to account for inflation since the base year used under
Subdivision (2).
(d) The adjusted penalty amount adopted is effective
beginning September 1 following the adjustment.
(e) The commission shall make available to the public
information regarding adjustments made under this section.
SECTION 2. The changes in law made by this Act apply only to
a violation committed on or after the effective date of this Act. A
violation committed before the effective date of this Act is
governed by the law in effect when the violation was committed, and
the former law is continued in effect for that purpose. For
purposes of this section, a violation was committed before the
effective date of this Act if any element of the violation was
committed before that date.
SECTION 3. This Act takes effect September 1, 2023.