73R7253 CAG-F By Jones of Lubbock H.B. No. 1601 Substitute the following for H.B. No. 1601: By Jones of Lubbock C.S.H.B. No. 1601 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED 1-1 AN ACT 1-2 relating to the disclosure of applications for petitions for a 1-3 local option election on the sale of alcoholic beverages and to the 1-4 disclosure of those petitions in certain counties. 1-5 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS: 1-6 SECTION 1. Subchapter A, Chapter 251, Alcoholic Beverage 1-7 Code, is amended by adding Section 251.18 to read as follows: 1-8 Sec. 251.18. APPLICATIONS AND PETITIONS AS PUBLIC 1-9 INFORMATION IN CERTAIN COUNTIES. (a) This section applies only to 1-10 a county that has a municipality with a population of 185,000 or 1-11 more in which the sale of mixed beverages by a permittee is legal 1-12 and the sale of alcoholic beverages for off-premises consumption is 1-13 not legal. This section continues to apply to a county subject to 1-14 it regardless of the results of an election to legalize or prohibit 1-15 the sale of mixed beverages or of alcoholic beverages for 1-16 off-premises consumption. 1-17 (b) An application for a petition, a petition, and the 1-18 signatures on an application or petition are public information and 1-19 open for inspection. A copy of an application or petition shall be 1-20 made available within the same business day of the request to any 1-21 person requesting it. The person or official who has custody of 1-22 the document may charge a reasonable fee for making a copy of the 1-23 document, not to exceed 25 cents per page. 1-24 (c) The county clerk shall print in capital letters and 2-1 boldfaced type the following notice after the headings required on 2-2 applications for petitions and petitions: "NOTICE: THIS DOCUMENT 2-3 IS AVAILABLE FOR INSPECTION AT ANY TIME BY A SIGNER, AN INTERESTED 2-4 PERSON, OR THE NEWS MEDIA. STATE LAW REQUIRES THE PERSON HAVING 2-5 CUSTODY OF THIS DOCUMENT TO PROVIDE A COPY WITHIN THE SAME BUSINESS 2-6 DAY TO ANY PERSON MAKING A REQUEST. THE CUSTODIAN MAY MAKE A 2-7 REASONABLE CHARGE FOR THE COPY (NOT TO EXCEED 25 CENTS PER PAGE)." 2-8 SECTION 2. The importance of this legislation and the 2-9 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an 2-10 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the 2-11 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several 2-12 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended, 2-13 and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its 2-14 passage, and it is so enacted.