By:  Bosse                                             H.B. No. 690
       73R3239 DWS-D
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to collection by a water or sewer service corporation of
    1-3  voluntary contributions on behalf of certain emergency services.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Chapter 76, Acts of the 43rd Legislature, 1st
    1-6  Called Session, 1933 (Article 1434a, Vernon's Texas Civil
    1-7  Statutes), is amended by adding Section 4A to read as follows:
    1-8        Sec. 4A.  (a)  A corporation may implement as part of its
    1-9  billing process a program under which the corporation collects from
   1-10  its customers voluntary contributions on behalf of a volunteer fire
   1-11  department or emergency medical service.
   1-12        (b)  A corporation that collects contributions under this
   1-13  section shall include on or with each bill that it sends to a
   1-14  customer a statement:
   1-15              (1)  describing the procedure by which the customer may
   1-16  make a contribution with the customer's bill payment;
   1-17              (2)  designating the volunteer fire department or
   1-18  emergency medical service to which the corporation will deliver the
   1-19  contribution;
   1-20              (3)  informing the customer that a contribution is
   1-21  voluntary; and
   1-22              (4)  describing the deductibility status of the
   1-23  contribution under federal income tax law.
   1-24        (c)  The corporation promptly shall deliver contributions
    2-1  that it collects under this section to the volunteer fire
    2-2  department or emergency medical service designated in the statement
    2-3  required by Subsection (b) of this section, except that the
    2-4  corporation may keep from the contributions an amount equal to the
    2-5  smaller of:
    2-6              (1)  the corporation's expenses in administering the
    2-7  contribution program; or
    2-8              (2)  five percent of the amount  collected as
    2-9  contributions.
   2-10        SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
   2-11  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   2-12  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   2-13  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   2-14  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
   2-15  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
   2-16  passage, and it is so enacted.