By Haywood                                            S.B. No. 1245
       74R6324 KLL-D
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to requiring certain elected officers and candidates to
    1-3  file federal income tax returns; providing a criminal penalty.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Subchapter B, Chapter 572, Government Code, is
    1-6  amended by adding Section 572.0211 to read as follows:
    1-7        Sec. 572.0211.  FEDERAL INCOME TAX RETURN FILED WITH
    1-8  STATEMENT.  (a)  An elected officer and a partisan or independent
    1-9  candidate for an office as an elected officer shall file with the
   1-10  financial statement a copy of the individual's most recent federal
   1-11  income tax return.
   1-12        (b)  A federal income tax return filed under this section is
   1-13  a public record.
   1-14        (c)  An individual commits an offense if the individual
   1-15  knowingly and wilfully fails to file the individual's federal
   1-16  income tax return as required by this section.  An offense under
   1-17  this subsection is a Class B misdemeanor.
   1-18        SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
   1-19  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   1-20  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   1-21  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   1-22  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
   1-23  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
   1-24  passage, and it is so enacted.