By:  Flores                                            H.B. No. 960
       73R1536 CAG-D
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to municipal regulation of the public consumption or
    1-3  possession of alcoholic beverages in a municipal park.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Subchapter C, Chapter 109, Alcoholic Beverage
    1-6  Code, is amended by adding Section 109.34 to read as follows:
    1-7        Sec. 109.34.  MUNICIPAL REGULATION OF OPEN CONTAINERS.  (a)
    1-8  To promote public health and safety, the governing body of a
    1-9  municipality by ordinance may prohibit the consumption of an
   1-10  alcoholic beverage or the possession of an alcoholic beverage in an
   1-11  open container in a municipal park.
   1-12        (b)  An ordinance enacted under this section does not apply
   1-13  to premises licensed for on-premise consumption.
   1-14        (c)  An ordinance enacted under this section may include an
   1-15  exemption for special events, including festivals, authorized by
   1-16  the governing body.
   1-17        SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
   1-18  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   1-19  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   1-20  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   1-21  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
   1-22  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
   1-23  passage, and it is so enacted.