H.B. No. 644
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to the annual registration of certain farm trailers, farm
    1-3  semitrailers, or forestry vehicles.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Section 2(c), Chapter 88, General Laws, Acts of
    1-6  the 41st Legislature, 2nd Called Session, 1929 (Article 6675a-2,
    1-7  Vernon's Texas Civil Statutes), is amended to read as follows:
    1-8        (c)  Owners of farm trailers and farm semitrailers with a
    1-9  gross weight exceeding four thousand (4,000) pounds but not
   1-10  exceeding thirty-four thousand (34,000) <twenty thousand (20,000)>
   1-11  pounds and used solely to transport their own seasonally harvested
   1-12  agricultural products and livestock from the place of production to
   1-13  the place of process, market or storage thereof, or farm supplies
   1-14  from the place of loading to the farm, and owners of machinery used
   1-15  solely for the purpose of drilling water wells or construction
   1-16  machinery (not designed for the transportation of persons or
   1-17  property on the public highways), may operate or move such vehicles
   1-18  temporarily upon the highways without the payment of the regular
   1-19  registration fees as prescribed by law, provided the owners of such
   1-20  farm trailers and semitrailers and machinery secure for a fee of
   1-21  five dollars ($5) for each year or portion thereof a distinguishing
   1-22  license plate from the Texas <State Highway> Department of
   1-23  Transportation through the County Tax Collector upon forms
   1-24  prescribed and furnished by the department.  Such vehicles shall be
    2-1  exempt from the inspection requirements of Sections 140 and 141 of
    2-2  the Uniform Act Regulating Traffic on Highways, as amended (Article
    2-3  6701d, Vernon's Texas Civil Statutes).
    2-4        SECTION 2.  Chapter 88, General Laws, Acts of the 41st
    2-5  Legislature, 2nd Called Session, 1929 (Article 6675a-1 et seq.,
    2-6  Vernon's Texas Civil Statutes), is amended by adding Section 5p to
    2-7  read as follows:
    2-8        Sec. 5p.  (a)  In this section, "forestry vehicle" means a
    2-9  vehicle used exclusively for transporting untreated ties, stave
   2-10  bolts, plywood bolts, pulpwood billets, wood chips, stumps,
   2-11  sawdust, moss, bark, wood shavings, and property used in production
   2-12  of those products.
   2-13        (b)  The department shall design and provide for the issuance
   2-14  of special license plates for a forestry vehicle.  The license
   2-15  plates shall bear the words "forestry vehicle."
   2-16        (c)  The department shall issue license plates under this
   2-17  section to a person who:
   2-18              (1)  applies to the department on a form prescribed by
   2-19  the department;
   2-20              (2)  pays the fee prescribed under Subsection (d) of
   2-21  this section; and
   2-22              (3)  submits with the application proof, acceptable to
   2-23  the department, that the person is eligible to receive the license
   2-24  plates.
   2-25        (d)  The department shall prescribe a fee for issuance of
   2-26  special plates under this section at an amount necessary to recover
   2-27  the cost of administering this section.  This fee is in addition to
    3-1  any other fee imposed by this Act.  The department shall collect
    3-2  any additional fee that a county imposes under this Act for
    3-3  registration of the forestry vehicle and shall forward the fee to
    3-4  the appropriate county for disposition as provided by this Act.
    3-5  The department shall deposit fees collected under this section,
    3-6  except fees forwarded to a county, in the state treasury to the
    3-7  credit of the state highway fund.
    3-8        (e)  If license plates issued under this section are lost,
    3-9  stolen, or mutilated, the owner of the forestry vehicle may obtain
   3-10  replacement plates from the department by paying a replacement fee
   3-11  prescribed by the department at an amount necessary to recover the
   3-12  cost of providing the replacement plates.
   3-13        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
   3-14  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   3-15  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   3-16  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   3-17  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
   3-18  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
   3-19  passage, and it is so enacted.