73R5051 CLG-D
          By Place                                              H.B. No. 1211
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to the tax rate of the Comanche County Hospital District.
    1-3        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-4        SECTION 1.  Chapter 203, Acts of the 63rd Legislature,
    1-5  Regular Session, 1973, is amended by adding Section 15A to read as
    1-6  follows:
    1-7        Sec. 15A.  (a)  The board of directors may order an election
    1-8  on the question of decreasing the district's maximum tax rate to 35
    1-9  cents on each $100 of valuation on all taxable property in the
   1-10  district.  The board shall order an election on this question if
   1-11  the board receives a petition requesting an election that is signed
   1-12  by at least 50 of the registered voters in the district.
   1-13        (b)  The election shall be held not later than the 60th day
   1-14  after the date on which the election is ordered.  Section
   1-15  41.001(a), Election Code, does not apply to an election ordered
   1-16  under this section.
   1-17        (c)  The ballot for the election shall be printed to permit
   1-18  voting for or against the proposition:  "The levy of annual taxes
   1-19  by the district for hospital purposes at a rate not to exceed 35
   1-20  cents on the $100 valuation of all taxable property in the
   1-21  district."  The election shall be held in accordance with the
   1-22  applicable provisions of the Election Code.
   1-23        (d)  The board shall meet and canvass the election returns.
   1-24  If a majority of the votes favor the proposition, the board may
    2-1  levy taxes as authorized by the proposition.  If a majority of the
    2-2  votes do not favor the proposition, another election on the
    2-3  question of decreasing the district's maximum tax rate may not be
    2-4  held before the first anniversary of the most recent election at
    2-5  which voters disapproved the proposition.
    2-6        SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
    2-7  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
    2-8  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
    2-9  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   2-10  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
   2-11  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
   2-12  passage, and it is so enacted.