By:  Cain                                             H.B. No. 1943
       73R6213 JD-F
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to court costs in certain ad valorem tax proceedings.
    1-3        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-4        SECTION 1.  Section 33.49(b), Tax Code, is amended to read as
    1-5  follows:
    1-6        (b)  A taxing unit shall pay the cost of publishing
    1-7  citations, notices of sale, or other notices, and the reasonable
    1-8  and customary fee of a person appointed by the court to participate
    1-9  in the proceedings,  from the unit's general fund as soon as
   1-10  practicable after receipt of the publisher's or other person's
   1-11  claim for payment.  The court may require the fee for the services
   1-12  of a person appointed by the court to be paid before the service is
   1-13  rendered if prior payment for those types of services is customary.
   1-14  The taxing unit is entitled to reimbursement from other taxing
   1-15  units that are parties to the suit for their proportionate share of
   1-16  the publication costs and any fee on satisfaction of any portion of
   1-17  the tax indebtedness before further distribution of the proceeds.
   1-18  A taxing unit may not pay a word or line rate for publication of
   1-19  citation or other required notice that exceeds the rate the
   1-20  newspaper publishing the notice charges private entities for
   1-21  similar classes of advertising.
   1-22        SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1993.  The
   1-23  change in law made by this Act applies only to a suit to collect
   1-24  taxes filed on or after that date.
    2-1        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
    2-2  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
    2-3  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
    2-4  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
    2-5  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.