By Greenberg                                          H.B. No. 2797
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to the contracting for, and establishment and continuance
    1-3  of, certain retirement program for the benefit of employees of
    1-4  municipal hospital authorities.
    1-5        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-6        SECTION 1.  Chapter 262 of the Health and Safety Code is
    1-7  amended by adding Section 262.035 to read as follows:
    1-8        Section 262.035.  (a)  If any authority is created by the
    1-9  governing body of a municipality which has established a municipal
   1-10  retirement system pursuant to Article 6243n, Vernon's Texas Civil
   1-11  Statutes, then the board of such authority shall have the authority
   1-12  to, and shall, provide retirement benefits for employees of such
   1-13  authority by participating in and making all contributions required
   1-14  or authorized by the municipal retirement system established by
   1-15  such municipality pursuant to Article 6243n, Vernon's Texas
   1-16  Statutes.
   1-17              (b)  The board of an authority, other than an authority
   1-18  described in subsection (a) above, may provide retirement benefits
   1-19  for employees of such authority by:
   1-20                    (1)  establishing or administering a retirement
   1-21  program; or
   1-22                    (2)  electing to participate in the Texas
   1-23  Municipal Retirement System or in any other municipal retirement
    2-1  system in which the municipality creating the authority is eligible
    2-2  to participate.
    2-3        SECTION 2.  EFFECTIVE DATE.  This Act takes
    2-4  effect _____________.
    2-5        SECTION 3.  EMERGENCY CLAUSE.  The importance of this
    2-6  legislation and the crowded condition of the calendars in both
    2-7  houses create an emergency and an imperative public necessity that
    2-8  the constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
    2-9  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.