Texas Utilities Code 104.374 – Pledge of State
(a) Customer rate relief bonds issued under this subchapter and any related ancillary agreements or credit agreements are not a debt or pledge of the faith and credit of this state or a state agency or political subdivision of this state. A customer rate relief bond, ancillary agreement, or credit agreement is payable solely from customer rate relief charges as provided by this subchapter.
(b) Notwithstanding Subsection (a), this state, including the railroad commission and the authority, pledges for the benefit and protection of the financing parties and the gas utility that this state will not take or permit any action that would impair the value of customer rate relief property, or, except as permitted by § 104.370, reduce, alter, or impair the customer rate relief charges to be imposed, collected, and remitted to financing parties until the principal, interest and premium, and contracts to be performed in connection with the related customer rate relief bonds and financing costs have been paid and performed in full. Each issuing financing entity shall include this pledge in any documentation relating to customer rate relief bonds.
Terms Used In Texas Utilities Code 104.374
- Bankruptcy: Refers to statutes and judicial proceedings involving persons or businesses that cannot pay their debts and seek the assistance of the court in getting a fresh start. Under the protection of the bankruptcy court, debtors may discharge their debts, perhaps by paying a portion of each debt. Bankruptcy judges preside over these proceedings.
- Obligation: An order placed, contract awarded, service received, or similar transaction during a given period that will require payments during the same or a future period.
- Person: includes corporation, organization, government or governmental subdivision or agency, business trust, estate, trust, partnership, association, and any other legal entity. See Texas Government Code 311.005
- Property: means real and personal property. See Texas Government Code 311.005
(c) Before the date that is two years and one day after the date that an issuing financing entity no longer has any payment obligation with respect to customer rate relief bonds, the issuing financing entity may not wind up or dissolve the financing entity’s operations, may not file a voluntary petition under federal bankruptcy law, and neither the board of the issuing financing entity nor any public official nor any organization, entity, or other person may authorize the issuing financing entity to be or to become a debtor under federal bankruptcy law during that period. The state covenants that it will not limit or alter the denial of authority under this subsection, and the provisions of this subsection are hereby made a part of the contractual obligation that is subject to the state pledge made in this section.