1-1  By:  Cuellar of Webb (Senate Sponsor - Zaffirini)     H.B. No. 3165
    1-2        (In the Senate - Received from the House May 8, 1995;
    1-3  May 9, 1995, read first time and referred to Committee on
    1-4  Jurisprudence; May 16, 1995, reported favorably by the following
    1-5  vote:  Yeas 7, Nays 0; May 16, 1995, sent to printer.)
    1-6                         A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-7                                AN ACT
    1-8  relating to an additional security fee collected in Webb County.
    1-9        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
   1-10        SECTION 1.  Chapter 291, Local Government Code, is amended by
   1-11  adding Section 291.009 to read as follows:
   1-12        Sec. 291.009.  WEBB COUNTY SECURITY FEE.  (a)  In addition to
   1-13  any other fee authorized by law, the Webb County Commissioners
   1-14  Court may set a fee not to exceed $20 to be collected at the time
   1-15  of filing in each civil case filed in the county court, a county
   1-16  court at law, or a district court in Webb County.  The fee shall be
   1-17  taxed as other costs.  The county is not liable for the costs.
   1-18        (b)  In any civil case brought by the state or a political
   1-19  subdivision of the state in which the state or political
   1-20  subdivision is the prevailing party, the amount of a fee imposed
   1-21  under Subsection (a) shall be taxed and collected as a cost of
   1-22  court against each nonprevailing party.
   1-23        (c)  The clerks of the respective courts shall collect the
   1-24  costs under Subsections (a) and (b).
   1-25        (d)  Costs and fees collected under this section shall be
   1-26  paid to the county treasurer, or to any other official who
   1-27  discharges the duties commonly delegated to the county treasurer,
   1-28  for deposit in a special fund to be used by the commissioners court
   1-29  only for courthouse security.
   1-30        SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1995, and
   1-31  applies only to civil cases filed in the county court, a county
   1-32  court at law, or a district court in Webb County on or after that
   1-33  date.
   1-34        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
   1-35  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   1-36  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   1-37  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   1-38  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.
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