SB1939

The enacted change: Section 403.0956 generally makes interest and earnings on specified dedicated general-revenue accounts available for general governmental purposes and directs the comptroller to credit them to general revenue. SB1939 adds the ship channel improvement revolving fund as the tenth listed exception. It does not create a blanket exemption from every budget law or appropriate a new amount. Final law, Section 1.

Existing fund purpose: Transportation Code Chapter 56 already places the account in general revenue, credits interest earned on its deposits and investments to it, and limits appropriations to administering the fund and its revolving loan program. The program helps entities finance the local share of qualifying ship-channel deepening or widening projects authorized by Congress and meeting commission rules; maintenance dredging is excluded. SB1939 leaves those provisions unchanged. Fund and interest-crediting provisions; Eligible loan projects; Final law.

Proposal versus final law: the introduced bill would have moved the account into the state highway fund and transferred its unencumbered balance. The Senate committee substitute added the interest-diversion exception while retaining that move. Senator Juan “Chuy” Hinojosa’s amendment, adopted April 2, struck the relocation and transfer sections. The Senate-passed, House committee and final versions retain only the interest exception and effective-date clause. There is one indexed amendment, and its removal of those sections survived. Introduced; Senate substitute; Adopted amendment; Senate-passed; House committee; Final law; Version index; Amendment index.

The certified votes were 31–0 in the Senate and 114–23 in the House, with one House member present but not voting. They met the immediate-effect threshold, so June 20, 2025—not the fallback September 1 date—is the effective date. Final law, Section 2 and certification; Official history.

Compare the published text versions in the official text index. A change is not attributed to a specific amendment here without a verified record.

The exception supports retaining the fund’s earnings for its dedicated financing purposes rather than sweeping them into unrestricted general revenue under this particular section. Eligible project sponsors may benefit from resources available for the existing loan program, but the act does not guarantee a loan, award an amount to a particular port or establish actual interest earned. Final law; Appropriation limits; Loan program.

The March 25 introduced and March 28 committee-substitute fiscal notes anticipate no significant state fiscal implication, assume revenue implications would be insignificant and anticipate no local-government fiscal implication. Both flag legislative funds-consolidation review. The substitute note explains that the proposed highway-fund move would make the general-revenue interest rule inapplicable; that observation concerns the proposal subsequently deleted, not a move enacted by SB1939. Neither note gives a dollar estimate of retained earnings. Introduced fiscal note; Committee-substitute fiscal note; Final law.