H.B. No. 839
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to imposing a limitation on the amount of special expenses
    1-3  that certain municipalities may retain from amounts collected in
    1-4  certain court proceedings.
    1-5        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-6        SECTION 1.  Section 144(b), Uniform Act Regulating Traffic on
    1-7  Highways (Article 6701d, Vernon's Texas Civil Statutes), is amended
    1-8  to read as follows:
    1-9        (b)  In each fiscal year, a municipality may retain, from
   1-10  fines collected for violation of any highway law as set forth in
   1-11  this Act and from special expenses collected under Article 45.54,
   1-12  Code of Criminal Procedure, in cases in which such violation is
   1-13  alleged, an amount equal to 30 percent of the municipality's
   1-14  revenue for the preceding fiscal year from all sources, other than
   1-15  federal funds and bond proceeds, as shown by the audit performed
   1-16  under Section 103.001, Local Government Code.  After a municipality
   1-17  has retained that amount, the municipality shall send to the state
   1-18  treasurer any portion of a fine or special expense collected that
   1-19  exceeds one dollar ($1).  The state treasurer shall deposit funds
   1-20  received under this section in the state treasury to the credit of
   1-21  the general revenue fund.
   1-22        SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
   1-23  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   1-24  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
    2-1  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
    2-2  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.