By:  Solis                                            H.B. No. 1618
       73R5282 CAG-D
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to a fee to finance certain security services at a
    1-3  courthouse.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Chapter 291, Local Government Code, is amended by
    1-6  adding Section 291.007 to read as follows:
    1-7        Sec. 291.007.  FEE FOR SECURITY.  (a)  A person convicted of
    1-8  a criminal offense in a criminal case filed in a county or district
    1-9  court in the county shall pay as court costs $5 in addition to
   1-10  other taxable court costs.  The additional $5 court cost shall be
   1-11  collected in the same manner that other fines or court costs in the
   1-12  case are collected.
   1-13        (b)  This section applies to a conviction for an offense
   1-14  under the state traffic laws if the offense is defined in:
   1-15              (1)  Chapter 173, Acts of the 47th Legislature, Regular
   1-16  Session, 1941 (Article 6687b, Vernon's Texas Civil Statutes), and
   1-17  its subsequent amendments; or
   1-18              (2)  the Uniform Act Regulating Traffic on Highways
   1-19  (Article 6701d, Vernon's Texas Civil Statutes) and its subsequent
   1-20  amendments, except Sections 34, 76-81, and 93-97 of that Act.
   1-21        (c)  The clerks of the respective courts shall collect the
   1-22  costs and pay them to the county treasurer, or to any other
   1-23  official who discharges the duties commonly delegated to the county
   1-24  treasurer, for deposit in a fund to be known as the courthouse
    2-1  entrance security fund.  The fund may be used only for the purpose
    2-2  of providing a metal detector and security personnel to operate the
    2-3  detector at entrances to the county courthouse.
    2-4        (d)  The courthouse entrance security fund shall be
    2-5  administered by or under the direction of the commissioners court.
    2-6        (e)  In this section, a person is considered to have been
    2-7  convicted in a case if:
    2-8              (1)  a sentence is imposed;
    2-9              (2)  the defendant receives probation or deferred
   2-10  adjudication; or
   2-11              (3)  the court defers final disposition of the case.
   2-12        SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1993, and
   2-13  applies only to a conviction in a criminal case that occurs on or
   2-14  after that date.
   2-15        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
   2-16  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   2-17  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   2-18  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   2-19  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.