By Maxey                                              H.B. No. 2499
       74R2970 CBH-D
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to the authority of certain transit authorities to
    1-3  develop, construct, improve, or maintain certain facilities or
    1-4  programs.
    1-5        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-6        SECTION 1.  Chapter 141, Acts of the 63rd Legislature,
    1-7  Regular Session, 1973 (Article 1118x, Vernon's Texas Civil
    1-8  Statutes), is amended by adding Section 6J to read as follows:
    1-9        Sec. 6J.  FACILITIES OR PROGRAMS IN CERTAIN AUTHORITIES.  (a)
   1-10  This section applies only to an authority in which the principal
   1-11  city has a population of less than 750,000 according to the most
   1-12  recent federal census and that was confirmed at a tax election
   1-13  before July 1, 1985.
   1-14        (b)  In addition to the other powers and duties prescribed by
   1-15  this Act,  an authority may develop, construct, improve, or
   1-16  maintain facilities or programs that enhance the transportation
   1-17  system or that may lead to an increase in the use of the
   1-18  authority's transit services by residents of the authority or by
   1-19  tourists.  Facilities or programs that may be developed,
   1-20  constructed, improved, or maintained under this section include
   1-21  auditoriums, exhibition halls, coliseums, museums, or other
   1-22  facilities or programs that encourage or promote the arts.
   1-23        SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
   1-24  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
    2-1  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
    2-2  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
    2-3  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
    2-4  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
    2-5  passage, and it is so enacted.