73R8368 E
          By Davis                                              H.B. No. 2538
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to the regulation of sexually oriented businesses by
    1-3  municipalities or counties.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Section 243.007, Local Government Code, is
    1-6  amended to read as follows:
    1-7        Sec. 243.007.  Licenses or Permits.  (a)  A municipality or
    1-8  county may require that an owner or operator of a sexually oriented
    1-9  business obtain a license or other permit or renew a license or
   1-10  other permit on a periodic basis for the operation of a sexually
   1-11  oriented business.  An application for a license or other permit
   1-12  must be made in accordance with the regulations adopted by the
   1-13  municipality or county.
   1-14        (b)  The municipal or county regulations adopted under this
   1-15  chapter may provide for the denial, suspension, or revocation of a
   1-16  license or other permit by the municipality or county.
   1-17        (c)  A municipality or county that requires an owner or
   1-18  operator of a sexually oriented business to obtain a license or
   1-19  other permit for the operation of the sexually oriented business
   1-20  shall hold a public hearing before issuing or denying the license
   1-21  or other permit.  At the hearing, members of the public must be
   1-22  given the opportunity to present testimony.
   1-23        (d)  A district court has jurisdiction of a suit that arises
    2-1  from the denial, suspension, or revocation of a license or other
    2-2  permit by a municipality or county.
    2-3        SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
    2-4  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
    2-5  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
    2-6  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
    2-7  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
    2-8  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
    2-9  passage, and it is so enacted.