1-1  By:  Crabb (Senate Sponsor - Patterson)               H.B. No. 1353
    1-2        (In the Senate - Received from the House March 30, 1995;
    1-3  April 3, 1995, read first time and referred to Committee on
    1-4  Intergovernmental Relations; April 12, 1995, reported favorably by
    1-5  the following vote:  Yeas 10, Nays 0; April 12, 1995, sent to
    1-6  printer.)
    1-7                         A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-8                                AN ACT
    1-9  relating to the bonding or insurance requirements of a political
   1-10  subdivision for the issuance of certain plumbing permits.
   1-11        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
   1-12        SECTION 1.  Section 15, The Plumbing License Law (Article
   1-13  6243-101, Vernon's Texas Civil Statutes), is amended to read as
   1-14  follows:
   1-15        Sec. 15.  LOCAL <MUNICIPAL> RULES AND REGULATIONS.
   1-16  (a)  Every city in this state of more than five thousand (5,000)
   1-17  inhabitants shall, and any city or town of this state may, by
   1-18  ordinance or by-law, prescribe rules and regulations for the
   1-19  materials, construction, alteration and inspection of all pipes,
   1-20  faucets, tanks, valves and other fixtures by and through which a
   1-21  supply of water, gas or sewage is used or carried; and provided
   1-22  that they shall not be placed in any building therein except in
   1-23  accordance with such rules and regulations; and shall further
   1-24  provide that no plumbing shall be done except in case of repairing
   1-25  of leaks, without a permit being first issued therefor upon such
   1-26  terms and conditions as such city or town shall prescribe; provided
   1-27  that no such ordinance, by-law, rule or regulation prescribed by
   1-28  any such city or town shall be inconsistent with this Act, or any
   1-29  rule or regulation adopted or prescribed by the State Board of
   1-30  Plumbing Examiners.
   1-31        (b)  A political subdivision that requires a master plumber
   1-32  to have a bond before the master plumber may be issued a permit by
   1-33  the subdivision shall also accept, instead of a bond, a certificate
   1-34  of insurance that meets the requirements of Subsection (c) of this
   1-35  section.
   1-36        (c)  A certificate of insurance must:
   1-37              (1)  be written by a company licensed to do business in
   1-38  this state;
   1-39              (2)  provide for commercial general liability insurance
   1-40  for the master plumber for claims for property damage or bodily
   1-41  injury, regardless of whether the claim  arises from a negligence
   1-42  claim or on a contract claim; and
   1-43              (3)  be in a coverage amount of not less than $300,000
   1-44  for all claims arising in any one-year period.
   1-45        SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1995, and
   1-46  applies only to a permit issued to a master plumber by a political
   1-47  subdivision on or after the effective date of this Act.  A permit
   1-48  issued before September 1, 1995, is governed by the law as it
   1-49  existed before the effective date of this Act, and the former law
   1-50  is continued in effect for that purpose.
   1-51        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
   1-52  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   1-53  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   1-54  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   1-55  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.
   1-56                               * * * * *