By:  Gallego                                           H.B. No. 322
       73R826 MLM-D
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to permitting hospital districts to vote for
    1-3  representatives to appraisal district boards.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Sections 6.03(c) and (e), Tax Code, are amended
    1-6  to read as follows:
    1-7        (c)  Members of the board of directors are appointed by vote
    1-8  of the governing bodies of the incorporated cities and towns, the
    1-9  school districts other than the county education district, the
   1-10  hospital districts, and, if entitled to vote, the conservation and
   1-11  reclamation districts that participate in the district and of the
   1-12  county.  A governing body may cast all its votes for one candidate
   1-13  or distribute them among candidates for any number of
   1-14  directorships.  Conservation and reclamation districts are not
   1-15  entitled to vote unless at least one conservation and reclamation
   1-16  district in the district delivers to the chief appraiser a written
   1-17  request to nominate and vote on the board of directors by June 1 of
   1-18  each odd-numbered year.  On receipt of a request, the chief
   1-19  appraiser shall certify a list by June 15 of all eligible
   1-20  conservation and reclamation districts that are imposing taxes and
   1-21  that participate in the district.
   1-22        (e)  The chief appraiser shall calculate the number of votes
   1-23  to which each taxing unit other than a conservation and reclamation
   1-24  district is entitled and shall deliver written notice to each of
    2-1  those units of its voting entitlement before October 1 of each
    2-2  odd-numbered year.  The chief appraiser shall deliver the notice:
    2-3              (1)  to the county judge and each commissioner of the
    2-4  county served by the appraisal district;
    2-5              (2)  to the presiding officer of the governing body of
    2-6  each city or town participating in the appraisal district, to the
    2-7  city manager of each city or town having a city manager, and to the
    2-8  city secretary or clerk, if there is one, of each city or town that
    2-9  does not have a city manager; <and>
   2-10              (3)  to the presiding officer of the governing body of
   2-11  each school district, other than the county education district,
   2-12  participating in the district and to the superintendent of those
   2-13  school districts; and
   2-14              (4)  to the presiding officer of the governing body of
   2-15  any other taxing unit that is entitled to vote.
   2-16        SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
   2-17  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   2-18  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   2-19  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   2-20  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
   2-21  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
   2-22  passage, and it is so enacted.