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House Bill 3485 |
House Author: Coleman |
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Effective: Vetoed |
Senate Sponsor: West |
House Bill 3485 amends a number of statutes relating to local governmental functions. The bill amends the Code of Criminal Procedure to:
· authorize the transmission of a warrant, complaint, or notice of arrest and commitment by secure fax or other electronic means
· allow a peace officer testifying before a grand jury and a Texas Department of Criminal Justice inmate witness in a criminal proceeding to testify through the use of a video teleconferencing system
· revise provisions relating to autopsies, death inquests, the regulation of medical examiners, and organ donation and retention by examiners performing inquests and autopsies
House Bill 3485 amends the Election Code to authorize the employment of the county elections administrator to be suspended, with or without pay, as an alternative to termination. The bill amends the Government Code and the Local Government Code to authorize additional methods of disbursing payments to jurors for jury service and to allow a juror to donate such payment.
House Bill 3485 amends the Health and Safety Code to:
· add provisions relating to the authority of the Dallas County Hospital District to employ health care providers and physicians and the authority of an eligible hospital that is operated by a governmental entity and located in a county with a population of 50,000 or less to employ physicians and relating to the liability cap for certain physicians
· require a county to place in a trust account money discovered in the possession of a deceased pauper
· authorize a crematory establishment to accept unidentified human remains from a county on the order of the commissioners court or a court located in the county
House Bill 3485 amends the Local Government Code to:
· provide that a county employee's request for a payroll deduction is not required to be submitted to the county auditor if the deduction is processed through an automated payroll system maintained by the county
· authorize a commissioners court of a self-insuring county or an intergovernmental pool operating under a county government liability insurance pool to require reimbursement for the provision of punitive damage coverage
· revise provisions relating to personal liability of nonowners of property cited for a violation of a county or municipal rule or ordinance and to providing notice of the citation to the owner
· increase from $25,000 to $50,000 the maximum amount of a county purchase or contract that is exempt from compliance with competitive bidding procedures
· allow a county to profit from the sale or licensure of county-developed computer software
· modify provisions relating to the creation, administration, powers, duties, and taxation of a county assistance district
House Bill 3485 amends the Education Code and Local Government Code to revise provisions of the Public Improvement District Assessment Act regarding a public improvement district's powers, the authority of a governing body of a municipality or a county to create districts and undertake improvement projects, the lease of a project to an institution of higher education, procedures for establishing, dissolving, and assessing a public improvement district, separate public improvement district funds, terms and conditions of bonds used for improvements, the authority of a district to annex or exclude land from the district, and the applicability of provisions about public improvement districts and improvement projects to certain municipalities.
House Bill 3485 amends the Occupations Code to exclude an information technology professional who is an employee of a county and who is in the scope of county employment from those persons considered to be acting as an investigations company for purposes of the Private Security Act. The bill amends the Property Code to require the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs to collect and report certain foreclosure data to the legislature.
Reason Given for Veto: "As the husband of a former nurse at a rural hospital, the son-in-law of a rural county physician, and a native of a rural county, I understand the needs of rural hospitals and their patients. I support rural hospitals’ intention of attracting more doctors, and would have been glad to sign a bill allowing them to do so by directly hiring physicians.
"However, an amendment added to House Bill No. 3485 late in the session would undermine some of the gains in medical liability reform that have come from caps on physicians’ liability. These reforms were passed in 2003 and approved in a constitutional amendment election. The objectionable provision would increase the liability cap for doctors employed directly by hospital districts, as compared to the bill without the amendment. With respect to doctors employed by hospital districts, this amendment creates uncertainty as to the applicability of the liability cap available in a single action when multiple doctors or multiple claims are involved.
"The bill’s provision regarding physician liability was neither debated nor discussed, but rather amended onto this bill late in the session. It risks unraveling the progress we made in curtailing excessive liability and ensuring that patients who need physicians will be able to find them. The 2003 medical liability reform has led to thousands of new doctors coming to Texas. The changes proposed by House Bill No. 3485 threaten the progress that reform has made."