73R1261 CAG-D
          By Stiles                                             H.B. No. 1127
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to the authority of a commissioners court to regulate or
    1-3  prohibit smoking in county facilities or other county public
    1-4  places; providing a penalty.
    1-5        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-6        SECTION 1.  Chapter 291, Local Government Code, is amended by
    1-7  adding Section 291.007 to read as follows:
    1-8        Sec. 291.007.  COUNTY REGULATION OF SMOKING.  (a)  The
    1-9  commissioners court of a county may regulate or prohibit smoking in
   1-10  any county facility or public place owned or leased by the county,
   1-11  including the county courthouse or a county office.
   1-12        (b)  A person who violates a regulation or prohibition
   1-13  adopted under this section commits an offense.  An offense under
   1-14  this section is a Class C misdemeanor.
   1-15        (c)  It is a defense to prosecution under this section that
   1-16  the county facility or public place in which the offense takes
   1-17  place:
   1-18              (1)  does not have prominently displayed a reasonably
   1-19  sized notice that smoking is prohibited in the facility or public
   1-20  place or that explains the smoking regulations applying to the
   1-21  facility or public place; or
   1-22              (2)  does not have accommodations for extinguishment of
   1-23  smoking materials.
   1-24        SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
    2-1  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
    2-2  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
    2-3  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
    2-4  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
    2-5  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
    2-6  passage, and it is so enacted.