By Jones of Dallas                                    H.B. No. 2544
       74R3643 DWS-D
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to notice of an application for a pawnshop license.
    1-3        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-4        SECTION 1.  The Texas Pawnshop Act (Article 5069-51.01 et
    1-5  seq., Vernon's Texas Civil Statutes) is amended by adding Section
    1-6  3B to read as follows:
    1-7        Sec. 3B.  NOTICE OF APPLICATION.  (a)  Before submitting an
    1-8  application for a pawnshop license or to change the location of a
    1-9  pawnshop, the applicant shall mail notice of the application to
   1-10  each owner of property located within 500 feet of the boundary of
   1-11  the property on which the pawnshop is to be located.  For the
   1-12  purposes of this section, the property on which a pawnshop is to be
   1-13  located includes the property occupied by any other business in the
   1-14  same shopping center with the pawnshop and any parking lot of the
   1-15  pawnshop or shopping center.
   1-16        (b)  The notice must state:
   1-17              (1)  the names and addresses of the persons that are
   1-18  required to be listed in the license application under Subsection
   1-19  (a) of Section 4 of this Act;
   1-20              (2)  the street address of the proposed location of the
   1-21  pawnshop; and
   1-22              (3)  that any person may request the Consumer Credit
   1-23  Commissioner to hold a public hearing on the application.
   1-24        (c)  The Commissioner may not accept an application that is
    2-1  not accompanied by an affidavit stating that notice was mailed as
    2-2  required by this section.
    2-3        SECTION 2.  Section 3B, Texas Pawnshop Act (Article
    2-4  5069-51.03B, Vernon's Texas Civil Statutes), as added by this Act,
    2-5  applies only to an application for a pawnshop license or for the
    2-6  change of location of a pawnshop submitted on or after the
    2-7  effective date of this Act.
    2-8        SECTION 3.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1995.
    2-9        SECTION 4.  The importance of this legislation and the
   2-10  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   2-11  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   2-12  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   2-13  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.