Home Evidence record Statutory authority
The legal record · Chapter 1076
Nobody has to pass a law for this. One was passed, and it has been waiting.
A local crisis center in Starr County does not need new legislation, a new district, or a special session. The Legislature already wrote the mechanism into the Starr County Hospital District's own enabling chapter — the power to create and sponsor a nonprofit corporation, to provide any reasonable medical service, and to keep board control of the money. It has been in force, unamended, since April 1, 2015.
4,143
Days Chapter 1076 has been in force in its current form, and available for exactly this.
0
Amendments to the chapter since it took effect. Nothing has been repealed or narrowed.
8
Requirements this initiative has — each already answered by a clause of the chapter.
1
Statute. No new law, no new district, no special session.
How long
This is not a new idea waiting for permission. Permission arrived first.
Every section of Chapter 1076 carries the same effective date: April 1, 2015. The chapter has not been amended since. The authority to do this has therefore been continuously available for longer than this initiative has existed.
-
Texas Constitution
The constitutional basis
Article IX, Section 9 of the Texas Constitution is the authority under which the Starr County Hospital District is created — Section 1076.002 says so on its face.
-
The District
A political subdivision, the size of the county
Section 1076.003 makes the District a political subdivision of the State. Section 1076.005 makes its boundaries coextensive with Starr County. The taxing district and the service area are the same map.
-
April 1, 2015
The District's powers take their current form
Chapter 1076 of the Special District Local Laws Code takes effect, carrying Section 1076.113 — the nonprofit corporation power — and Section 1076.111(3), the open clause on medical care.
-
Since then
Zero amendments
No section of the chapter has been amended, narrowed or repealed. What was available on day one is available today, unchanged.
-
Today
Day 4,143. Nothing built.
No local crisis capacity. No district-sponsored nonprofit providing it. The authority has been on the books for every one of those days, and for every one of the 2,619 deputy hours and 134,372 miles in the record next door.
The path
The whole legal route, in one picture.
Three boxes and two clauses. This is not a workaround assembled by lawyers — it is the sequence the Legislature wrote into the District's own chapter.
Diagram by SCBHC from the text of Chapter 1076. It shows what the statute permits. It is not a statement that the District, its board, or any official has agreed to any part of it.
The clauses
Six sentences of Texas law. Read the left column; the right is only our reading of it.
The quoted column is the statute, verbatim, with the operative phrase marked. Everything in the right column is ours, and you are invited to disagree with it — the chapter is linked at the bottom of this page so you can.
Sec. 1076.101 — District responsibility
The district shall provide medical and hospital care for the district's needy inhabitants.
Duty
What this means here
Shall, not may. This is the first substantive sentence in the chapter's powers subchapter, and it is a duty rather than an option. The people in the record next door — 343 uninsured behavioral health emergency encounters, 617 inmates on psychotropic medication — are district inhabitants, and the great majority of them cannot pay.
Sec. 1076.111 — Provision of certain health services
The district may operate or provide for: … (3) any other reasonable or appropriate medical care or medical service.
Scope
What this means here
Behavioral health is not carved out of this chapter. It is not even named — because the Legislature listed ambulance, home health, nursing and hospice, and then wrote a clause deliberately wide enough to carry whatever else reasonable care turns out to require. A crisis center is medical care. Nothing in the chapter says otherwise.
Sec. 1076.113(a) — Nonprofit corporation
The district may create and sponsor a nonprofit corporation under the Business Organizations Code and may contribute money to or solicit money for the corporation.
The vehicle
What this means here
This is the structure, named in the statute: a nonprofit corporation, sponsored by the District, which the District may fund and may raise money for. Whether that reaches a corporation the District did not itself create is a question for the District's counsel — but the shape of the arrangement is the one the Legislature already wrote down.
Sec. 1076.113(c) — Joint venture
The corporation may enter into a joint venture with any public or private entity or individual to provide health care or other services the district is authorized to provide under this chapter.
The coalition
What this means here
This is how everyone else plugs in — the County, the Sheriff's Office, a school district, the Local Mental Health Authority, a health system, a funder. One clause turns a single nonprofit into the coalition a crisis center actually needs.
Sec. 1076.113(e) — Controls
The board shall establish controls to ensure that the corporation uses its money as required by this section.
Accountability
What this means here
Every board asks who watches the money. The Legislature answered before the question was put: the District's own board sets the controls. Accountability here is not a promise anyone has to take on trust — it is a statutory obligation on the trustees.
Sec. 1076.110(b) — Contracts for services
The board may contract with a public or private hospital, a political subdivision of this state, or a state or federal agency for the district to provide a mobile emergency medical service or to provide for the investigatory or welfare needs of district inhabitants.
Interlocal
What this means here
A county is a political subdivision. So is a city. This is the contracting authority underneath any law-enforcement drop-off arrangement or county services contract — the interlocal agreements the briefing describes as a sustainability pathway.
Sec. 1076.108 & Subchapter E, Sec. 1076.252
The board may accept for the district a gift, grant, or endowment… · The board may impose the tax at a rate not to exceed … 75 cents on each $100 valuation.
Money
What this means here
Grants start programs; they rarely sustain them. The District is different: it may accept gifts, grants and endowments, and it sits on a permanent, voter-approved local mechanism with a statutory ceiling. That is the difference between a program with a funding cliff and one with a floor.
The match
Eight things this initiative needs. Eight clauses that already exist.
Left: what a local crisis center actually requires to be lawful and durable. Right: the clause of Chapter 1076 that already provides it. Not one of these needs a legislative session.
- A local entity that can hold and spend money for this care §1076.113(a) — a nonprofit corporation the District may create and sponsor
- Authority to provide care that is not a hospital bed §1076.111(3) — “any other reasonable or appropriate medical care or medical service”
- A duty owed to the people who cannot pay §1076.101 — the District shall provide care for its needy inhabitants
- A way for the county, cities and agencies to join in §1076.113(c) — joint venture with any public or private entity
- Financial accountability a board can defend in public §1076.113(e) — the board shall establish controls
- A route for grants, gifts and endowments §1076.108 — the board may accept a gift, grant or endowment
- A service area that matches where the need is §1076.005 — District boundaries coextensive with Starr County
- Funding that outlives a grant cycle Subchapter E bonds and §1076.252 — a voter-approved rate, capped by statute
What this page is, and what it is not
- This page describes public law. Every sentence in the quoted column is checkable against the linked chapter, and we would rather you checked it than took our word.
- Citing a statute is not a claim of support. Nothing here says that the Starr County Hospital District, its board, its administrator, or any public official has agreed to any of this, and nothing here commits any public body to anything.
- We name no legislator, no office and no individual on this page. The question of whether this fits Starr County belongs in public, on the record, with the people the law puts in charge of that decision.
- This is not legal advice. Interpretation of the District's powers is for the District's counsel. What we can say is what the chapter says.
Check us.
Chapter 1076 is public, it is short, and every clause quoted above is in it. We host a copy so the link never breaks; the official text is the one published by the State of Texas, and where the two differ, the State's text governs.
The PDF is an unofficial reprint we host, retrieved August 3, 2026. Quotations above are verbatim from the chapter; emphasis is ours and is marked. Nothing on this page is legal advice.
Prepared by
Johnny Gonzalez, MBA
Co-Founder & Organizer, Starr County Behavioral Health Center USA, Retired