By:  Luna                                              S.B. No. 697
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
                                        AN ACT
    1-1  relating to the punishment for the operation of certain overweight
    1-2  vehicles.
    1-3        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-4        SECTION 1.  Subsection (a), Section 5, Chapter 71, Acts of
    1-5  the 47th Legislature, Regular Session, 1941, is amended to read as
    1-6  follows:
    1-7        (a)  Except as provided by Subsection (c), any person,
    1-8  corporation, receiver or association who violates any provision of
    1-9  Section 5, Chapter 42, General Laws, Acts of the 41st Legislature,
   1-10  2nd Called Session, 1929 (Article 6701d-11, Vernon's Texas Civil
   1-11  Statutes), (the Section fixing the gross weight of commercial motor
   1-12  vehicles) shall, upon conviction, be punished by a fine of not less
   1-13  than One Hundred Dollars ($100), nor more than One Thousand
   1-14  <Hundred Fifty> Dollars ($1,000) in a justice of the peace court of
   1-15  any county, nor more than Five Hundred Dollars ($500) in any
   1-16  municipal court <($150); for a second conviction within one year
   1-17  thereafter such person, corporation, receiver, or association shall
   1-18  be punished by a fine of not less than One Hundred Fifty Dollars
   1-19  ($150) nor more than Two Hundred Fifty Dollars ($250) or
   1-20  imprisonment in the county jail for not more than sixty (60) days
   1-21  or by both such fine and imprisonment; upon a third or subsequent
   1-22  conviction within one year after the second conviction such person,
   1-23  corporation, receiver, or association shall be punished by a fine
   1-24  of not less than Two Hundred Dollars ($200) nor more than Five
    2-1  Hundred Dollars ($500) or by imprisonment in the county jail for
    2-2  not more than six (6) months, or by both such fine and
    2-3  imprisonment>.  It shall be the duty of the judge of the court to
    2-4  report forthwith to the Department of Public Safety any convictions
    2-5  obtained in his court under this Section and it shall be the duty
    2-6  of the Department of Public Safety to keep a record thereof.
    2-7        SECTION 2.  (a)  The change in law made by this Act applies
    2-8  only to an offense committed on or after the effective date of this
    2-9  Act.  For purposes of this section, an offense is committed before
   2-10  the effective date of this Act if any element of the offense occurs
   2-11  before that date.
   2-12        (b)  An offense committed before the effective date of this
   2-13  Act is governed by the law in effect when the offense was
   2-14  committed, and the former law is continued in effect for that
   2-15  purpose.
   2-16        SECTION 3.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1995.
   2-17        SECTION 4.  The importance of this legislation and the
   2-18  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   2-19  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   2-20  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   2-21  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.