1-1     By:  Pitts (Senate Sponsor - Cain)                     H.B. No. 130

 1-2           (In the Senate - Received from the House May 12, 1997;

 1-3     May 13, 1997, read first time and referred to Committee on

 1-4     Intergovernmental Relations; May 16, 1997, reported favorably by

 1-5     the following vote:  Yeas 11, Nays 0; May 16, 1997, sent to

 1-6     printer.)

 1-7                            A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

 1-8                                   AN ACT

 1-9     relating to the authority of the commissioners court of a county to

1-10     alter speed limits on county roads.

1-11           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

1-12           SECTION 1.  Section 545.355(a), Transportation Code, is

1-13     amended to read as follows:

1-14           (a)  The commissioners court of a county, for a county road

1-15     or highway outside the limits of the right-of-way of an officially

1-16     designated or marked highway or road of the state highway system

1-17     and outside a municipality, has the same authority to increase

1-18     [alter] prima facie speed limits from the results of an engineering

1-19     and traffic investigation as the Texas Transportation Commission on

1-20     an officially designated or marked highway of the state highway

1-21     system, and may declare a lower speed limit on a county road or

1-22     highway to which this section applies, if the commissioners court

1-23     determines that the prima facie speed limit on the road or highway

1-24     is unreasonable or unsafe.  The commissioners court may not modify

1-25     the rule established by Section 545.351(a) or establish a speed

1-26     limit of more than 60 miles per hour.

1-27           SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the

1-28     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

1-29     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

1-30     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

1-31     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,

1-32     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its

1-33     passage, and it is so enacted.

1-34                                  * * * * *