By West                                               H.B. No. 1077
       74R4188 CAG-D
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to the regulation of the public possession, consumption,
    1-3  purchase, or sale of alcoholic beverages on county property.
    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 ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGES ON COUNTY
    1-8  PROPERTY.  (a)  The commissioners court of a county by order may
    1-9  prohibit, limit, or otherwise restrict the sale, purchase, or
   1-10  consumption of an alcoholic beverage or the possession of an
   1-11  alcoholic beverage in an open container with intent to consume in
   1-12  all or any designated part of the public places in the
   1-13  unincorporated area of the county.
   1-14        (b)  The commissioners court of a county may grant a variance
   1-15  to the order in specific circumstances if the commissioners court,
   1-16  after consideration of public health and safety and the equities of
   1-17  the specific circumstances, determines that enforcement of the
   1-18  order:
   1-19              (1)  is not in the best interest of the public;
   1-20              (2)  constitutes waste or inefficient use of land or
   1-21  other resources;
   1-22              (3)  does not serve its intended purpose; or
   1-23              (4)  is not effective or necessary.
   1-24        (c)  For the purposes of an order adopted under this section,
    2-1  there is a rebuttable presumption that a person in possession of an
    2-2  alcoholic beverage in an open container intends to consume the
    2-3  beverage.
    2-4        (d)  In this section:
    2-5              (1)  "Possession" means physical possession or actual
    2-6  care, custody, control, or management.
    2-7              (2)  "Public place" means any area, facility, or land
    2-8  that the county owns or controls or in which the county has an
    2-9  easement, including a public sidewalk, alley, street, highway,
   2-10  park, parking lot, pedestrian mall, passageway, tunnel, bridge, or
   2-11  skywalk.
   2-12        SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
   2-13  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   2-14  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   2-15  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   2-16  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
   2-17  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
   2-18  passage, and it is so enacted.