By Gallego                                            H.B. No. 1599
       74R3145 JD-D
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to permitting hospital districts to vote for
    1-3  representatives to appraisal district boards.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Sections 6.03(c) and (e), Tax Code, are amended
    1-6  to read as follows:
    1-7        (c)  Members of the board of directors are appointed by vote
    1-8  of the governing bodies of the incorporated cities and towns, the
    1-9  school districts, the hospital districts with elected board members
   1-10  that set the hospital district's tax rate, and, if entitled to
   1-11  vote, the conservation and reclamation districts that participate
   1-12  in the district and of the county.  A governing body may cast all
   1-13  its votes for one candidate or distribute them among candidates for
   1-14  any number of directorships.  Conservation and reclamation
   1-15  districts are not entitled to vote unless at least one conservation
   1-16  and reclamation district in the district delivers to the chief
   1-17  appraiser a written request to nominate and vote on the board of
   1-18  directors by June 1 of each odd-numbered year.  On receipt of a
   1-19  request, the chief appraiser shall certify a list by June 15 of all
   1-20  eligible conservation and reclamation districts that are imposing
   1-21  taxes and that participate in the district.
   1-22        (e)  The chief appraiser shall calculate the number of votes
   1-23  to which each taxing unit other than a conservation and reclamation
   1-24  district is entitled and shall deliver written notice to each of
    2-1  those units of its voting entitlement before October 1 of each
    2-2  odd-numbered year.  The chief appraiser shall deliver the notice:
    2-3              (1)  to the county judge and each commissioner of the
    2-4  county served by the appraisal district;
    2-5              (2)  to the presiding officer of the governing body of
    2-6  each city or town participating in the appraisal district, to the
    2-7  city manager of each city or town having a city manager, and to the
    2-8  city secretary or clerk, if there is one, of each city or town that
    2-9  does not have a city manager; <and>
   2-10              (3)  to the presiding officer of the governing body of
   2-11  each school district participating in the district and to the
   2-12  superintendent of those school districts; and
   2-13              (4)  to the presiding officer of the governing body of
   2-14  any other taxing unit that is entitled to vote.
   2-15        SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
   2-16  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   2-17  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   2-18  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   2-19  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
   2-20  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
   2-21  passage, and it is so enacted.