S.B. No. 758

	AN ACT
	relating to bill payment assistance programs offered by certain
	municipalities.
	BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
	SECTION 1.  Section 1502.056(a), Government Code, is amended
	to read as follows:
	(a)  If the revenue of a utility system, park, or swimming
	pool secures the payment of public securities issued or obligations
	incurred under this chapter, each expense of operation and
	maintenance, including all salaries, labor, materials, interest,
	repairs and extensions necessary to provide efficient service, and
	each proper item of expense, is a first lien against that revenue.
	For a municipality with a population of more than one million but
	less than two million, the first lien against the revenue of a
	municipally owned utility system that secures the payment of public
	securities issued or obligations incurred under this chapter also
	applies to funding, as a necessary operations expense, for a bill
	payment assistance program for utility system customers who:
	(1)  [have been threatened with disconnection from
	service for nonpayment of bills and who] have been determined by the
	municipality to be low-income customers; or
	(2)  are military veterans who have significantly
	decreased abilities to regulate their bodies' core temperatures
	because of severe burns received in combat.
	SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 2017.
	______________________________	______________________________
	President of the Senate	Speaker of the House
	I hereby certify that S.B. No. 758 passed the Senate on
	March 30, 2017, by the following vote:  Yeas 29, Nays 2.
	______________________________
	Secretary of the Senate
	I hereby certify that S.B. No. 758 passed the House on
	May 4, 2017, by the following vote:  Yeas 111, Nays 35, two
	present not voting.
	______________________________
	Chief Clerk of the House
	Approved:
	______________________________
	Date
	______________________________
	Governor