BILL ANALYSIS

H.B. 5668

By: Spiller

Land & Resource Management

Committee Report (Unamended)

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

The bill author has informed the committee that under current law, municipal utility districts are generally limited by statutory requirements that apply minimum acreage thresholds and contiguity standards when establishing defined areas for purposes of bond issuance and taxation. These limitations may prevent districts from structuring financing to match the location and scope of specific developments that are geographically separated. H.B. 5668 applies to the Far North Fort Worth Municipal Utility District No. 1 of Tarrant and Wise Counties and authorizes the district to designate defined areas or specific properties—including noncontiguous tracts—for purposes of issuing bonds and levying taxes to fund infrastructure, facilities, or services that primarily benefit those areas. The bill provides the district with additional flexibility to structure financing in accordance with existing authority under Subchapter J, Chapter 54 of the Water Code.

CRIMINAL JUSTICE IMPACT

It is the committee's opinion that this bill does not expressly create a criminal offense, increase the punishment for an existing criminal offense or category of offenses, or change the eligibility of a person for community supervision, parole, or mandatory supervision.

RULEMAKING AUTHORITY

It is the committee's opinion that this bill does not expressly grant any additional rulemaking authority to a state officer, department, agency, or institution.

ANALYSIS

H.B. 5668 amends the Special District Local Laws Code to authorize the Far North Fort Worth Municipal Utility District No. 1 of Tarrant and Wise Counties, notwithstanding a statutory acreage requirement, to define areas or designate certain property of the district and impose taxes and issue bonds in the defined area or designated property, as provided by specified municipal utility district statutes, to pay for improvements, facilities, or services that primarily benefit that area or property and do not generally and directly benefit the district as a whole. The bill authorizes such a defined area to include a noncontiguous tract, notwithstanding any other law.

H.B. 5668 establishes that the district retains all rights, powers, privileges, authority, duties, and functions that it had before the bill's effective date.

H.B. 5668 establishes that all applicable requirements relating to the following have been fulfilled and accomplished with respect to the bill:

·the legal notice of intention to introduce;

·governor action;

·Texas Commission on Environmental Quality recommendations; and

·the state constitution and laws and legislative rules and procedures.

EFFECTIVE DATE

On passage, or, if the bill does not receive the necessary vote, September 1, 2025.