By Turner of Coleman                                   H.B. No. 958
       74R1963 DAK-D
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to the authority of certain counties to impose a county
    1-3  hotel occupancy tax.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Section 352.002(a), Tax Code, is amended to read
    1-6  as follows:
    1-7        (a)  The commissioners courts of the following counties by
    1-8  the adoption of an order or resolution may impose a tax on a person
    1-9  who, under a lease, concession, permit, right of access, license,
   1-10  contract, or agreement, pays for the use or possession or for the
   1-11  right to the use or possession of a room that is in a hotel, costs
   1-12  $2 or more each day, and is ordinarily used for sleeping:
   1-13              (1)  a county that has a population of more than two
   1-14  million;
   1-15              (2)  a county that has a population of 90,000 or more,
   1-16  borders the Republic of Mexico, and does not have three or more
   1-17  cities that each have a population of more than 17,500;
   1-18              (3)  a county in which there is no municipality;
   1-19              (4)  a county in which there is located an Indian
   1-20  reservation under the jurisdiction of the United States government;
   1-21              (5)  a county that has a population of 17,500 or less,
   1-22  that has one municipality with a population of less than 2,500, and
   1-23  that borders a county located partially in the Edwards Aquifer
   1-24  Authority established by Chapter 626, Acts of the 73rd Legislature,
    2-1  Regular Session, 1993 <in which there is located a horse racing
    2-2  track licensed as a class 1 or class 2 racetrack under the Texas
    2-3  Racing Act (Article 179e, Vernon's Texas Civil Statutes)>;
    2-4              (6)  a county that borders the Gulf of Mexico;
    2-5              (7)  a county that has a population of less than 5,000,
    2-6  that borders the Republic of Mexico, and in which there is located
    2-7  a major observatory; and
    2-8              (8)  a county that has a population of 10,000 or less
    2-9  and borders the Toledo Bend Reservoir.
   2-10        SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
   2-11  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   2-12  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   2-13  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   2-14  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
   2-15  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
   2-16  passage, and it is so enacted.