By Davila                                             H.B. No. 2248
       74R6290 DLF-D
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to the sale of cigarettes.
    1-3        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-4        SECTION 1.  Subchapter D, Chapter 154, Tax Code, is amended
    1-5  by adding Section 154.1016 to read as follows:
    1-6        Sec. 154.1016.  SALES; MINIMUM PACKAGE SIZE.  A permit holder
    1-7  may not sell or distribute cigarettes in a package that contains
    1-8  fewer than 20 individual cigarettes.
    1-9        SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1995, and
   1-10  applies only to the sale or distribution of cigarettes on or after
   1-11  January 1, 1996. The sale or distribution of cigarettes before
   1-12  January 1, 1996, is governed by the law as it existed immediately
   1-13  before the effective date of this Act, and that law is continued in
   1-14  effect for that purpose.
   1-15        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
   1-16  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   1-17  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   1-18  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   1-19  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.