1-1  By:  Turner of Harris (Senate Sponsor - Whitmire)     H.B. No. 1417
    1-2        (In the Senate - Received from the House May 8, 1995;
    1-3  May 9, 1995, read first time and referred to Committee on
    1-4  Intergovernmental Relations; May 17, 1995, reported favorably by
    1-5  the following vote:  Yeas 10, Nays 0; May 17, 1995, sent to
    1-6  printer.)
    1-7                         A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-8                                AN ACT
    1-9  relating to benefits for certain survivors of deceased police
   1-10  officers under the police officers' pension systems of certain
   1-11  cities.
   1-12        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
   1-13        SECTION 1.  Section 13(a), Chapter 76, Acts of the 50th
   1-14  Legislature, Regular Session, 1947 (Article 6243g-1, Vernon's Texas
   1-15  Civil Statutes), is amended to read as follows:
   1-16        (a)  If any member of the police department who has been
   1-17  retired on allowance because of length of service or disability
   1-18  thereafter dies <on or after July 1, 1986,> from any cause
   1-19  whatsoever after he has become entitled to an allowance or pension,
   1-20  and leaves a surviving spouse, a child or children under the age of
   1-21  eighteen (18) years or a dependent parent, the Board shall order
   1-22  paid a monthly allowance as follows:  (a) to the surviving spouse,
   1-23  <so long as he or she remains a widow or widower,> a sum equal to
   1-24  the allowance which was granted to the member upon service or
   1-25  disability pension based on his length of service in the police
   1-26  department; (b) to the guardian of each child, the sum of
   1-27  twenty-five ($25) Dollars a month until the child reaches the age
   1-28  of eighteen (18) years or marries; (c) to the guardian of each
   1-29  child, only in case no spouse is entitled to an allowance, the sum
   1-30  the spouse would have received, to be divided equally among the
   1-31  unmarried children under eighteen (18) years; (d) to the dependent
   1-32  parent, only in case no spouse or dependent child is entitled to an
   1-33  allowance, the sum the spouse would have received, to be paid to
   1-34  but one (1) parent and such parent to be determined by the Pension
   1-35  Board.
   1-36        SECTION 2.  Section 1(p), Article 6243g-3, Revised Statutes,
   1-37  is amended to read as follows:
   1-38        (p)  "Surviving spouse" means a person:
   1-39              (1)  who was married to a deceased active member at the
   1-40  time of the member's death, or to a deceased retired member before
   1-41  the member's retirement or for a period of at least five years
   1-42  before the member's death, and whose marriage was recorded in the
   1-43  records of the recorder's office in the county in which the
   1-44  marriage ceremony was performed<, and who remains unmarried, never
   1-45  having had another marriage certificate recorded in any county's
   1-46  recording office after the date of the member's death>; or
   1-47              (2)  who has on file with the pension board a
   1-48  declaration of common-law marriage supported by evidence as
   1-49  required by the board and signed by the member and the member's
   1-50  common-law spouse before a notary public.
   1-51        SECTION 3.  Section 21(b), Article 6243g-3, Revised Statutes,
   1-52  is amended to read as follows:
   1-53        (b)  A survivor's pension shall begin when the member or
   1-54  retired member dies.  If payable to a surviving spouse who
   1-55  subsequently dies <or marries>, it shall become payable in the
   1-56  following month only to a surviving dependent child as defined in
   1-57  Section 1 of this article.  If payable to a dependent child who
   1-58  dies or fails to meet the conditions of eligibility in Section 1 of
   1-59  this article, the pension shall then cease.  If payable to a
   1-60  parent, it shall cease with the month in which the parent dies.
   1-61        SECTION 4.  Section 2(j), Chapter 76, Acts of the 50th
   1-62  Legislature, Regular Session, 1947 (Article 6243g-1, Vernon's Texas
   1-63  Civil Statutes), is repealed.
   1-64        SECTION 5.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1995.
   1-65        SECTION 6.  The importance of this legislation and the
   1-66  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   1-67  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   1-68  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
    2-1  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.
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