By Howard                                             H.B. No. 2580
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to the use of certain sales and use tax revenue to support
    1-3  a public junior college.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Section 130.003(b), Education Code, is amended to
    1-6  read as follows:
    1-7        (b)  To be eligible for and to receive a proportionate share
    1-8  of the appropriation, a public junior college must:
    1-9              (1)  be certified as a public junior college as
   1-10  prescribed in Section 61.063 of this code;
   1-11              (2)  offer a minimum of 24 semester hours of vocational
   1-12  and/or terminal courses;
   1-13              (3)  have complied with all existing laws, rules, and
   1-14  regulations governing the establishment and maintenance of public
   1-15  junior colleges;
   1-16              (4)  collect, from each full-time and part-time student
   1-17  enrolled, matriculation and other session fees in the amounts
   1-18  required by Section 54.051 of this code, except, however, the
   1-19  governing board of a public junior college district may waive the
   1-20  difference in the rate of tuition for nonresident and resident
   1-21  students for a person, and his dependents, who owns property which
   1-22  is subject to ad valorem taxation by the junior college district;
   1-23              (5)  grant, when properly applied for, the scholarships
   1-24  and tuition exemptions provided for in this code;  and
    2-1              (6)  for a public junior college established on or
    2-2  after September 1, 1986, levy and collect ad valorem taxes as
    2-3  provided by law for the operation and maintenance of the public
    2-4  junior college or, if the public junior college is in a county with
    2-5  a population of more than 223,000 and less than 235,000, receive an
    2-6  annual contribution of sales and use taxes collected by a political
    2-7  subdivision and pledged to the use and benefit of the public junior
    2-8  college.
    2-9        SECTION 2.  Subchapter G, Chapter 130, Education Code, is
   2-10  amended by adding Section 130.1215 to read as follows:
   2-11        Sec. 130.1215.  SALES AND USE TAX REVENUES.  A junior college
   2-12  district that is located in a county that is more than 223,000 and
   2-13  less than 235,000 and receives an annual contribution of sales and
   2-14  use taxes collected by a political subdivision and pledged to the
   2-15  use and benefit of the public junior college may use that revenue
   2-16  in the same manner as provided by law for ad valorem taxes
   2-17  collected by the district.
   2-18        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
   2-19  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   2-20  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   2-21  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   2-22  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
   2-23  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
   2-24  passage, and it is so enacted.