By Giddings                                            H.B. No. 589
       74R2170 CAG-F
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to regulation of the public possession of open containers
    1-3  of alcoholic beverages by a home-rule municipality.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Subchapter C, Chapter 109, Alcoholic Beverage
    1-6  Code, is amended by adding Section 109.34 to read as follows:
    1-7        Sec. 109.34.  REGULATION OF OPEN CONTAINERS BY  HOME-RULE
    1-8  MUNICIPALITIES.  (a)  To promote public health and safety, the
    1-9  governing body of a home-rule municipality by ordinance may
   1-10  prohibit, limit, or otherwise restrict in all or any designated
   1-11  part of the public places in the municipality the consumption of an
   1-12  alcoholic beverage or the possession of an alcoholic beverage in an
   1-13  open container with intent to consume.  The ordinance may not apply
   1-14  to premises licensed for on-premise consumption.
   1-15        (b)  The governing body may grant a variance to the ordinance
   1-16  in specific circumstances if the governing body, after
   1-17  consideration of public health and safety and the equities of the
   1-18  specific circumstances, determines that enforcement of the
   1-19  ordinance:
   1-20              (1)  is not in the best interest of the public;
   1-21              (2)  constitutes waste or inefficient use of land or
   1-22  other resources;
   1-23              (3)  does not serve its intended purpose; or
   1-24              (4)  is not effective or necessary.
    2-1        (c)  For the purposes of an ordinance adopted under this
    2-2  section, there is a rebuttable presumption that a person in
    2-3  possession of an alcoholic beverage in an open container intends to
    2-4  consume the beverage.
    2-5        (d)  In this section:
    2-6              (1)  "Possession" means physical possession or actual
    2-7  care, custody, control, or management.
    2-8              (2)  "Public place" means any area, facility, or land
    2-9  that the home-rule municipality owns or controls or in which the
   2-10  municipality has an easement.
   2-11        SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
   2-12  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   2-13  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   2-14  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   2-15  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
   2-16  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
   2-17  passage, and it is so enacted.