73R7252 CAG-F
          By Jones of Lubbock                                   H.B. No. 1600
          Substitute the following for H.B. No. 1600:
          By Jones of Lubbock                               C.S.H.B. No. 1600
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to the payment of the expenses for holding a local option
    1-3  election on the sale of alcoholic beverages.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Section 251.40, Alcoholic Beverage Code, is
    1-6  amended by amending Subsection (b) and adding Subsection (d) to
    1-7  read as follows:
    1-8        (b)  Except as provided by Subsection (d) of this section,
    1-9  county <County> expense is limited to the holding of one election
   1-10  in each of the political subdivisions in Subsection (a) of this
   1-11  section in a one-year period where the intent of the election is to
   1-12  legalize the sale of alcoholic beverages and<.  County expense is
   1-13  limited to the holding of> one election in each of the political
   1-14  subdivisions in Subsection (a) of this section in a one-year period
   1-15  where the intent of the election is to prohibit the sale of
   1-16  alcoholic beverages.
   1-17        (d)  A county that has a municipality with a population of
   1-18  185,000 or more in which the sale of mixed beverages by a permittee
   1-19  is legal and the sale of alcoholic beverages for off-premises
   1-20  consumption is not legal is not liable for the expense of an
   1-21  election to legalize or prohibit the sale of alcoholic beverages in
   1-22  a political subdivision, however, unless the number of qualified
   1-23  voters certified under Section 251.10 of this code as signing the
   1-24  petition submitted to call that election equals or exceeds 33
    2-1  percent of the number of registered voters in that political
    2-2  subdivision according to the most recent official list of
    2-3  registered voters.  This subsection continues to apply to a county
    2-4  subject to it regardless of the results of an election to legalize
    2-5  or prohibit the sale of mixed beverages or of alcoholic beverages
    2-6  for off-premises consumption.
    2-7        SECTION 2.  Section 251.41(b), Alcoholic Beverage Code, is
    2-8  amended to read as follows:
    2-9        (b)  The deposit must be in the form of a cashier's check in
   2-10  the total amount of $1 <25 cents> per voter listed on the current
   2-11  list of registered voters residing in the county, justice precinct,
   2-12  or incorporated city or town where the election is to be held.
   2-13        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
   2-14  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   2-15  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   2-16  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   2-17  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
   2-18  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
   2-19  passage, and it is so enacted.