By:  Madla                                             S.B. No. 424
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
                                        AN ACT
    1-1  relating to the payment in periodic installments of certain
    1-2  penalties owed by certain businesses for violations of law under
    1-3  the jurisdiction of the Texas Natural Resource Conservation
    1-4  Commission.
    1-5        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-6        SECTION 1.  Subchapter D, Chapter 5, Water Code, is amended
    1-7  by adding Section 5.1175 to read as follows:
    1-8        Sec. 5.1175.  PAYMENT OF PENALTY BY INSTALLMENT.  (a)  The
    1-9  commission by rule shall allow a small business that owes a
   1-10  monetary civil or administrative penalty imposed for a violation of
   1-11  law within the commission's jurisdiction or for a violation of a
   1-12  license, permit, or order issued or rule adopted by the commission
   1-13  to pay the penalty in periodic installments.  The rule must provide
   1-14  a procedure for a qualified small business to apply for permission
   1-15  to pay the penalty over time.
   1-16        (b)  The rule must classify small businesses by their net
   1-17  annual receipts and number of employees.  A business that is a
   1-18  wholly owned subsidiary of a corporation may not qualify as a small
   1-19  business under this section.
   1-20        (c)  The rule may vary the period over which the penalty may
   1-21  be paid or the amount of the periodic installments according to the
   1-22  amount of the penalty owed and the size of the business that owes
   1-23  the penalty.  The period over which the penalty may be paid may not
   1-24  exceed 12 months.
    2-1        SECTION 2.  The Texas Natural Resource Conservation
    2-2  Commission shall adopt the rule required by Section 5.1175, Water
    2-3  Code, as added by this Act, to take effect as soon as is
    2-4  practicable but not later than January 1, 1996.
    2-5        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
    2-6  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
    2-7  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
    2-8  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
    2-9  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
   2-10  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
   2-11  passage, and it is so enacted.