South Carolina General Assembly
120th Session, 2013-2014

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Indicates Matter Stricken
Indicates New Matter

H. 3859

STATUS INFORMATION

General Bill
Sponsors: Rep. Bowen
Document Path: l:\council\bills\dka\3104sd13.docx

Introduced in the House on March 21, 2013
Currently residing in the House Committee on Labor, Commerce and Industry

Summary: Water companies

HISTORY OF LEGISLATIVE ACTIONS

     Date      Body   Action Description with journal page number
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   3/21/2013  House   Introduced and read first time (House Journal-page 14)
   3/21/2013  House   Referred to Committee on Labor, Commerce and Industry 
                        (House Journal-page 14)

View the latest legislative information at the LPITS web site

VERSIONS OF THIS BILL

3/21/2013

(Text matches printed bills. Document has been reformatted to meet World Wide Web specifications.)

A BILL

TO AMEND THE CODE OF LAWS OF SOUTH CAROLINA, 1976, BY ADDING SECTION 6-1-55 SO AS TO PROVIDE A PROCEDURE, SUBJECT TO THE RESULTS OF A REFERENDUM IN THE AREA CONCERNED, WHERE THE WATER SERVICE PROVIDED TO A SPECIFIED UNINCORPORATED AREA OF A COUNTY BY A PRIVATE WATER COMPANY MAY BE TRANSFERRED TO ANOTHER PROVIDER, WHICH MAY INCLUDE ANOTHER PRIVATE WATER COMPANY OR A POLITICAL SUBDIVISION OF THIS STATE, UNDER SPECIFIED CONDITIONS.

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of South Carolina:

SECTION    1.    Chapter 1, Title 6 of the 1976 Code is amended by adding:

"Section 6-1-55.    (A)    Notwithstanding any other provision of law, upon the petition of at least ten percent of the citizens in a county who are qualified electors of this State residing in an identifiable subdivision located outside the corporate limits of a municipality or residing in a particular contiguous area located outside the corporate limits of a municipality as identified on the petition on which their signature appears, a referendum in the area must be held at the same time as the next general election on the question of whether or not the qualified electors residing in the area desire that the water service in the area currently provided by a private water company instead be provided by another supplier which may include another private water company or a political subdivision of this State. The question on the referendum ballot must be framed by the election and registration commission for that county and shall identify who is the current water supplier and who the requested new supplier shall be, which also must be stated on the petition itself. The costs of the referendum must be paid by that particular county. If two-thirds of the qualified electors voting in the referendum favor a change in suppliers, upon approval of the county governing body and with the consent of the proposed new water supplier, the water supplier may be changed as of a date certain in the future to be reflected in an agreement to this effect entered into between the county governing body and the new water supplier."

SECTION    2.    This act takes effect upon approval by the Governor.

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This web page was last updated on April 1, 2013 at 3:52 PM