By Nelson                                              S.B. No. 157
       74R1783 CAG-D
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to the regulation of the public possession of open
    1-3  containers of alcoholic beverages by a local government.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Subchapter C, Chapter 109, Alcoholic Beverage
    1-6  Code, is amended by adding Section 109.34 to read as follows:
    1-7        Sec. 109.34.  LOCAL GOVERNMENT REGULATION OF OPEN CONTAINERS.
    1-8  (a)  To promote public health and safety, the governing body of a
    1-9  municipality by ordinance or the commissioners court of a county by
   1-10  order may prohibit, limit, or otherwise restrict the consumption of
   1-11  an alcoholic beverage or the possession of an alcoholic beverage in
   1-12  an open container with intent to consume in all or any designated
   1-13  part of the public places in the municipality or the unincorporated
   1-14  area of the county.  The ordinance or order may not apply to
   1-15  premises licensed for on-premise consumption.
   1-16        (b)  The governing body of a municipality or the
   1-17  commissioners court of a county may grant a variance to the
   1-18  ordinance or order in specific circumstances if the governing body
   1-19  or commissioners court, after consideration of public health and
   1-20  safety and the equities of the specific circumstances, determines
   1-21  that enforcement of the ordinance or order:
   1-22              (1)  is not in the best interest of the public;
   1-23              (2)  constitutes waste or inefficient use of land or
   1-24  other resources;
    2-1              (3)  does not serve its intended purpose; or
    2-2              (4)  is not effective or necessary.
    2-3        (c)  For the purposes of an ordinance or order adopted under
    2-4  this section, there is a rebuttable presumption that a person in
    2-5  possession of an alcoholic beverage in an open container intends to
    2-6  consume the beverage.
    2-7        (d)  In this section:
    2-8              (1)  "Possession" means physical possession or actual
    2-9  care, custody, control, or management.
   2-10              (2)  "Public place" means any area, facility, or land
   2-11  that the municipality or county owns or controls or in which the
   2-12  municipality or county has an easement, including a public
   2-13  sidewalk, alley, street, highway, park, parking lot, pedestrian
   2-14  mall, passageway, tunnel, bridge, or skywalk.
   2-15        SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
   2-16  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   2-17  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   2-18  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   2-19  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
   2-20  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
   2-21  passage, and it is so enacted.