By Dear, Park, Kamel                                   H.B. No. 330
       74R1838 PEP-D
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to the payment of certain fees and court costs by a person
    1-3  who successfully completes a teen court program.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Article 45.55, Code of Criminal Procedure, is
    1-6  amended by adding Subsection (g) to read as follows:
    1-7        (g)(1)  A defendant for whom proceedings are deferred under
    1-8  this article is exempt from the requirement to pay a court cost or
    1-9  fee described by Subdivision (2) that is imposed by another statute
   1-10  unless the defendant fails to present, no later than the date on
   1-11  which the deferral period ends, satisfactory evidence of having
   1-12  successfully completed a teen court program.
   1-13              (2)  This subsection applies to a court cost or fee
   1-14  imposed by statute on a defendant considered to have been convicted
   1-15  in a criminal case, regardless of whether:
   1-16                    (A)  a sentence was imposed;
   1-17                    (B)  the defendant received community supervision
   1-18  after conviction or as a condition of deferred adjudication; or
   1-19                    (C)  the court deferred final disposition of the
   1-20  case.
   1-21        SECTION 2.  (a)  The change in law made by this Act applies
   1-22  only to a defendant charged with an offense committed on or after
   1-23  the effective date of this Act.  For purposes of this section, an
   1-24  offense is committed before the effective date of this Act if any
    2-1  element of the offense occurs before the effective date.
    2-2        (b)  A defendant charged with an offense committed before the
    2-3  effective date of this Act is covered by the law in effect when the
    2-4  offense was committed, and the former law is continued in effect
    2-5  for that purpose.
    2-6        SECTION 3.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1995.
    2-7        SECTION 4.  The importance of this legislation and the
    2-8  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
    2-9  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   2-10  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   2-11  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.
   2-12                       COMMITTEE AMENDMENT NO. 1
   2-13        Amend H.B. 330 as follows:
   2-14        On page 1, line 7, after "(g)" strike the remainder of
   2-15  Section 1 and substitute "A Justice or Municipal Court may exempt a
   2-16  defendant for whom proceedings are deferred under this article from
   2-17  the requirement to pay a court cost or fee that is imposed by
   2-18  another statute."
   2-19                                                              Goodman