By:  Yarbrough                                        H.B. No. 1468
       73R5410 JD-D
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to the penalty for illegally operating certain automobile
    1-3  wrecking and salvage yards.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Section 12, Chapter 886, Acts of the 68th
    1-6  Legislature, Regular Session, 1983 (Article 2372dd, Vernon's Texas
    1-7  Civil Statutes), is amended by amending Subsection (a) and adding
    1-8  Subsections (c), (d), (e), and (f) to read as follows:
    1-9        (a)  A person who operates an automotive wrecking and salvage
   1-10  yard in violation of this Act commits an offense.  Each <An offense
   1-11  under this section is a Class C misdemeanor, and each> day the
   1-12  violation continues is a separate offense.
   1-13        (c)  Except as provided by Subsections (d), (e), and (f) of
   1-14  this section, an offense under this section is a misdemeanor
   1-15  punishable by a fine of $250.
   1-16        (d)  If it is shown on the trial of an offense under this
   1-17  section that the person has previously been convicted one time of
   1-18  an offense under this section, the offense is punishable by a fine
   1-19  of $500.
   1-20        (e)  If it is shown on the trial of an offense under this
   1-21  section that the person has previously been convicted two times of
   1-22  an offense under this section, the offense is punishable by a fine
   1-23  of $750, by confinement in jail for a term not to exceed 180 days,
   1-24  or by both the fine and the confinement.
    2-1        (f)  If it is shown on the trial of an offense under this
    2-2  section that the person has previously been convicted three or more
    2-3  times of an offense under this section, the offense is punishable
    2-4  by a fine of $1,000, by confinement in jail for a term not to
    2-5  exceed 180 days, or by both the fine and the confinement.
    2-6        SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1993.  The
    2-7  change in law made by this Act applies only to the punishment for
    2-8  an offense committed on or after that date.   The punishment for an
    2-9  offense committed before the effective date of this Act is covered
   2-10  by the law in effect when the offense was committed, and the former
   2-11  law is continued in effect for that purpose.  For purposes of this
   2-12  section, an offense was committed before the effective date of this
   2-13  Act if any element of the offense occurred before that date.
   2-14        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
   2-15  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   2-16  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   2-17  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   2-18  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.