SB1967

Drainage-district grants: the Water Loan Assistance Fund may provide grants to drainage districts established under Article III, Section 52, or Article XVI, Section 59, of the Texas Constitution for water-supply projects, including those with a flood-control component. For this grant category, the board cannot disqualify a district just because it lacks historical water-use data, does not sell water directly to consumers, or lacks a certificate authorizing retail water/wastewater service. The historical-data protection applies notwithstanding Water Code 16.012(m); it is not a general repeal of water-use surveys or a guarantee of funding. Final law, Section 1; Water Loan Assistance Fund; Earlier assistance authority; Water-use survey law.

A new consideration—not automatic first place: when prioritizing State Water Implementation Fund for Texas projects, the board must also consider whether a water-supply project includes flood control, regardless of whether its applicant holds a retail-service certificate. Existing priorities and other factors remain: population and regional benefits, local contribution, ability to repay, leveraging other funding, emergencies, readiness where applicable, and conservation. The underlying program prioritizes projects in the state water plan. Final law, Section 2; Fund definition; State-water-plan purpose; Existing priority framework.

Broader flood-project eligibility: the Flood Infrastructure Fund definition now expressly includes multipurpose flood-mitigation/drainage infrastructure that controls, diverts, captures or impounds floodwater, stormwater, agricultural runoff or treated wastewater effluent and treats and distributes that water to create an additional supply. This is not eligibility for every standalone water project. Existing eligible applicants include qualifying districts/authorities, municipalities and counties. The program provides different forms of loans and grants under separate conditions; its state-flood-plan financing condition after adoption of the initial plan is unchanged by this act. Final law, Section 3; Earlier definition and eligible applicants; Financing forms and plan requirement.

What changed during debate: the introduced, Senate committee, Senate-passed and House committee operative texts matched: they added only the multipurpose flood-project definition and September 1 effective date. Martinez’s sole indexed floor amendment, adopted May 1, added the drainage-district grant provisions and new prioritization factor. Both additions survived into Sections 1–2 of the enrolled law; the original definition became Section 3. Senate concurrence followed May 7. These were floor-amendment additions, not a committee substitute. Introduced; Senate committee; Senate-passed; House committee; Martinez amendment; Amendment index; Text/version index; Final law.

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

Drainage districts that do not operate retail water utilities gain an expressly protected route to apply for specified grants. Communities could benefit from projects serving both flood protection and water supply, but actual benefits depend on project design, selection and available funding. Applicants still face applicable financing conditions and project costs; loans are repayable assistance, not free grants. No award, completed project, added water volume or household bill reduction is verified here. Final law; Existing loan and grant conditions.

The April 4 introduced-version fiscal note and May 6 passed-second-house note—also indexed with the enrolled bill—anticipate no significant state fiscal implication, assuming costs can be absorbed within existing resources. They say local-government fiscal effects cannot be determined. That does not establish zero local construction costs or promise an unlimited grant budget. The act adds no dollar appropriation, tax or individual grant entitlement. Introduced fiscal note; Passed-second-house fiscal note; Enrolled-index fiscal note; Final law.