By:  Wentworth                                         S.B. No. 627
       73R3474 GWK-D
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to the punishment for the offense of false report of an
    1-3  emergency.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Section 42.06(b), Penal Code, is amended to read
    1-6  as follows:
    1-7        (b)  An offense under this section is a Class A misdemeanor
    1-8  unless the false report is of an emergency involving a public
    1-9  primary or secondary school, public communications, public
   1-10  transportation, public water, gas, or power supply or other public
   1-11  service, in which event the offense is a felony of the third
   1-12  degree.
   1-13        SECTION 2.  (a)  The change in law made by this Act applies
   1-14  only to the punishment for an offense committed on or after the
   1-15  effective date of this Act.  For purposes of this section, an
   1-16  offense is committed before the effective date of this Act if any
   1-17  element of the offense is committed before the effective date.
   1-18        (b)  The punishment for an offense committed before the
   1-19  effective date of this Act is covered by the law in effect when the
   1-20  offense is committed, and the former law is continued in effect for
   1-21  that purpose.
   1-22        SECTION 3.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1993.
   1-23        SECTION 4.  The importance of this legislation and the
   1-24  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
    2-1  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
    2-2  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
    2-3  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.