Texas Utilities Code 41.154 – Property Rights
(a) The rights and interests of an electric cooperative or its subsidiary, affiliate, successor, financing party, or assignee under a financing order, including the right to impose, collect, receive, and enforce the payment of securitized charges authorized in the financing order, shall be only contract rights until the property is first transferred or pledged to an assignee or financing party, as applicable, in connection with the issuance of securitized bonds, at which time the property becomes securitized property.
(b) Securitized property that is specified in the financing order constitutes a present vested property right for all purposes, including for purposes of §§ 16 and 17, Article I, Texas Constitution, § 10, Article I, United States Constitution, and the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution, and the laws of this state and the United States, even if the imposition and collection of securitized charges depend on further acts of the electric cooperative or others that may not have yet occurred.
Terms Used In Texas Utilities Code 41.154
- Amendment: A proposal to alter the text of a pending bill or other measure by striking out some of it, by inserting new language, or both. Before an amendment becomes part of the measure, thelegislature must agree to it.
- Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
- Dependent: A person dependent for support upon another.
- 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
- United States: includes a department, bureau, or other agency of the United States of America. See Texas Government Code 311.005
(c) Securitized property shall exist regardless of whether securitized charges have been billed, have accrued, or have been collected and notwithstanding the fact that the value or amount of the property is dependent on the future provision of service to customers by the electric cooperative or its successors or assigns.
(d) On the issuance of the securitized bonds and the financing order, and when the requirements of § 41.159 are met, the securitized charges, including their nonbypassability, are irrevocable, final, nondiscretionary, and effective without further action by the electric cooperative or any other person or governmental authority. The financing order shall remain in effect and the property shall continue to exist for the same period as the pledge of the state described in § 41.160.
(e) All revenue, collections, claims, payments, money, or proceeds of or arising from or relating to securitized charges shall constitute proceeds of the securitized property arising from the financing order.