By:  Henderson                                         S.B. No. 899
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
                                        AN ACT
    1-1  relating to preservation of property rights; and declaring an
    1-2  emergency.
    1-3        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-4        SECTION 1.  Subsection (b), Section 21.042, Property Code, is
    1-5  amended to read as follows:
    1-6        Sec. 21.042.  ASSESSMENT OF DAMAGES.
    1-7        (b)  If a part of or an entire tract or parcel of real
    1-8  property is condemned, the damage to the property owner is the
    1-9  local market value of the property at the time of the special
   1-10  commissioners' hearing or the property owner may elect to establish
   1-11  an earlier date of valuation and taking by proving (i) that the
   1-12  condemning authority manifested publicly the intention to take the
   1-13  property at such earlier date; (ii) that the market value of the
   1-14  landowner's property at that time was higher than the date of
   1-15  valuation used by the condemnor; and (iii) that said public
   1-16  manifestation by the condemning authority adversely affected the
   1-17  value of the real property in question.
   1-18        SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1995.
   1-19        SECTION 3.  EMERGENCY CLAUSE.  The importance of this
   1-20  legislation and the crowded condition of the calendars in both
   1-21  houses create an emergency and an imperative public necessity that
   1-22  the constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   1-23  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.