Sec. 33.101.  APPEAL BY RATEPAYERS OUTSIDE MUNICIPALITY.  (a)  The ratepayers of a municipally owned utility who are outside the municipality may appeal to the commission an action of the governing body of the municipality affecting the municipally owned utility's rates by filing with the commission a petition for review signed by a number of ratepayers served by the utility outside the municipality equal to at least the lesser of 10,000 or five percent of those ratepayers.
(b)  A petition for review is properly signed if signed by a person or the spouse of a person in whose name residential utility service is carried.
(c)  For purposes of this section, each person who receives a separate bill is a ratepayer.  A person who receives more than one bill may not be counted as more than one ratepayer.
Acts 1997, 75th Leg., ch. 166, Sec. 1, eff. Sept. 1, 1997.