By:  Ratliff                                            S.B. No. 36
       73R938 DWS-D
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to an exemption from registration for certain tow trucks.
    1-3        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-4        SECTION 1.  Section 2(a), Chapter 1135, Acts of the 70th
    1-5  Legislature, Regular Session, 1987 (Article 6687-9b, Vernon's Texas
    1-6  Civil Statutes), is amended to read as follows:
    1-7        (a)  Except as provided by Sections 2A and <Section> 5 of
    1-8  this Act, a person may not operate a tow truck in this state unless
    1-9  the tow truck is registered with the department as provided by this
   1-10  Act.
   1-11        SECTION 2.  Chapter 1135, Acts of the 70th Legislature,
   1-12  Regular Session, 1987 (Article 6687-9b, Vernon's Texas Civil
   1-13  Statutes), is amended by adding Section 2A to read as follows:
   1-14        Sec. 2A.  EXEMPTION FOR TOW TRUCK NOT FOR HIRE.  Registration
   1-15  is not required under this Act for a tow truck to operate in a
   1-16  county with a population of 150,000 or fewer if the tow truck is
   1-17  not for hire and is conspicuously labeled "Not for hire" on both
   1-18  sides.
   1-19        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
   1-20  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   1-21  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   1-22  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   1-23  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
   1-24  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
    2-1  passage, and it is so enacted.