By:  Puente                                            H.B. No. 832
       73R2153 RWS-D
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to the civil penalty a municipality may recover for a
    1-3  violation of certain water control ordinances.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Section 54.017(b), Local Government Code, is
    1-6  amended to read as follows:
    1-7        (b)  A civil penalty under this section may not exceed $1,000
    1-8  a day for a violation of an ordinance, except that a civil penalty
    1-9  under this section may not exceed $5,000 a day for a violation of
   1-10  an ordinance relating to effluent limitations, storm water control,
   1-11  or the discharge of a pollutant into a sewer system owned or
   1-12  controlled by a municipality.
   1-13        SECTION 2.  (a)  The change in law made by this Act applies
   1-14  only to a violation committed on or after the effective date of
   1-15  this Act.  For purposes of this section, a violation is committed
   1-16  on or after the effective date of this Act only if each element of
   1-17  the violation occurs on or after that date.
   1-18        (b)  A violation committed before the effective date of this
   1-19  Act is covered by the law in effect when the violation was
   1-20  committed, and the former law is continued in effect for this
   1-21  purpose.
   1-22        SECTION 3.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1993.
   1-23        SECTION 4.  The importance of this legislation and the
   1-24  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
    2-1  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
    2-2  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
    2-3  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.