By:  Hill                                             H.B. No. 1164
       73R1593 DWS-D
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to special license plates for peace officers wounded or
    1-3  killed in the line of duty.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Chapter 88, General Laws, Acts of the 41st
    1-6  Legislature, 2nd Called Session, 1929 (Article 6675a-1 et seq.,
    1-7  Vernon's Texas Civil Statutes), is amended by adding Section 5p to
    1-8  read as follows:
    1-9        Sec. 5p.  (a)  The department shall design and provide for
   1-10  the issuance of special license plates for a vehicle that is owned
   1-11  by:
   1-12              (1)  a person wounded in the line of duty as a peace
   1-13  officer; or
   1-14              (2)  a surviving spouse, parent, or adult child of a
   1-15  person killed in the line of duty as a peace officer.
   1-16        (b)  License plates issued under this section must bear an
   1-17  insignia depicting a yellow rose superimposed on the outline of a
   1-18  badge with the words "To Protect and Serve" inscribed above.
   1-19        (c)  The department shall issue license plates under this
   1-20  section to a person who:
   1-21              (1)  applies to the department on a form prescribed by
   1-22  the department;
   1-23              (2)  pays the fee prescribed by Subsection (e) of this
   1-24  section; and
    2-1              (3)  submits with the application proof, acceptable to
    2-2  the department, that the person is eligible to receive the license
    2-3  plates.
    2-4        (d)  A person applying for license plates under this section
    2-5  may:
    2-6              (1)  have a license plate number assigned by the
    2-7  department; or
    2-8              (2)  apply for personalized prestige license plates
    2-9  under Section 5c of this Act.
   2-10        (e)  The fee for issuance of special license plates under
   2-11  this section is Twenty Dollars ($20.00) a year.  This fee is in
   2-12  addition to the motor vehicle registration fee imposed by Section 5
   2-13  of this Act and, if personalized prestige license plates are
   2-14  issued, in addition to the fee imposed by Section 5c of this Act.
   2-15  Any additional fee that a county may impose under this Act for
   2-16  registering a vehicle does not apply to a vehicle receiving special
   2-17  license plates under this section.  The department shall deposit
   2-18  fees collected under this section in the state treasury to the
   2-19  credit of the state highway fund.
   2-20        (f)  If the owner of a vehicle for which plates are issued
   2-21  under this section disposes of the vehicle during a registration
   2-22  year, the person shall return the special license plates to the
   2-23  department.
   2-24        (g)  A person eligible for license plates under this section
   2-25  as a surviving spouse of a person killed in the line of duty as a
   2-26  peace officer does not become ineligible because the person
   2-27  remarries.
    3-1        (h)  For the purposes of this section, "peace officer" has
    3-2  the meaning assigned by Section 1.07, Penal Code.
    3-3        SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1993.
    3-4        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
    3-5  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
    3-6  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
    3-7  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
    3-8  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.