By Kamel                                                H.B. No. 96
       74R596 PAM-D
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to county regulation of roadside vendors.
    1-3        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-4        SECTION 1.  Section 2.3015, County Road and Bridge Act
    1-5  (Article 6702-1, Vernon's Texas Civil Statutes), is amended to read
    1-6  as follows:
    1-7        Sec. 2.3015.  REGULATION OF ROADSIDE VENDORS IN <POPULOUS>
    1-8  COUNTIES.  (a)  To promote the public safety, the commissioners
    1-9  court of a county <with a population of more than 1.4 million,
   1-10  according to the most recent federal census,> by order may
   1-11  regulate:
   1-12              (1)  the extent to which a vendor of food or
   1-13  merchandise of any kind may:
   1-14                    (A)  sell the items on a public highway or road
   1-15  in the unincorporated area of the county or in the right of way of
   1-16  the highway or road; and
   1-17                    (B)  erect, maintain, or place a structure on the
   1-18  highway or road or in the right of way; and
   1-19              (2)  the extent to which a person may solicit funds on
   1-20  a public highway or road in the unincorporated area of the county
   1-21  or in the right of way of the highway or road.
   1-22        (b)  As part of the regulations, the commissioners court may:
   1-23              (1)  require a vendor or a person soliciting funds to
   1-24  obtain a permit to sell the food or merchandise or to solicit the
    2-1  funds;
    2-2              (2)  charge a reasonable fee for the permit; and
    2-3              (3)  provide for the removal of any structure that is
    2-4  on a public highway or road or in a right of way of a public
    2-5  highway or road in violation of the regulations.
    2-6        (c)  If a regulation adopted under this section conflicts
    2-7  with a statute or a state agency rule, the statute or rule prevails
    2-8  to the extent of the conflict.
    2-9        (d)  A person commits an offense if the person intentionally
   2-10  or knowingly violates a regulation adopted under this section or
   2-11  obstructs or threatens to obstruct the removal of a structure that
   2-12  is on a public highway or road or in the right of way of a public
   2-13  highway or road in violation of a regulation adopted under this
   2-14  section.  Each day a violation continues constitutes a separate
   2-15  offense.  An offense under this subsection is a Class C
   2-16  misdemeanor.
   2-17        SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
   2-18  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   2-19  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   2-20  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   2-21  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
   2-22  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
   2-23  passage, and it is so enacted.