1-1     By Tillery                                            H.B. No. 1055

 1-2     75R3939 DWS-D                           

 1-3                                   AN ACT

 1-4     relating to denial of a driver's license to a juvenile for failure

 1-5     to appear in court or pay a fine in connection with a misdemeanor.

 1-6           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

 1-7           SECTION 1.  Section 521.201, Transportation Code, is amended

 1-8     to read as follows:

 1-9           Sec. 521.201.  LICENSE INELIGIBILITY IN GENERAL.  The

1-10     department may not issue any license to a person who:

1-11                 (1)  is under 15 years of age;

1-12                 (2)  is under 18 years of age unless the person

1-13     complies with the requirements imposed by Section 521.204;

1-14                 (3)  is shown to be addicted to the use of alcohol, a

1-15     controlled substance, or another drug that renders a person

1-16     incapable of driving;

1-17                 (4)  holds a driver's license issued by this state or

1-18     another state or country that is revoked, canceled, or under

1-19     suspension;

1-20                 (5)  has been determined by a judgment of a court to be

1-21     mentally incompetent unless the person has, by the date of the

1-22     license application, been:

1-23                       (A)  restored to competency by judicial decree;

1-24     or

1-25                       (B)  released from a hospital for the mentally

1-26     incompetent on a certificate by the superintendent of the hospital

1-27     that the person is competent;

1-28                 (6)  the department determines to be afflicted with a

1-29     mental or physical disability or disease that prevents the person

1-30     from exercising reasonable and ordinary control over a motor

1-31     vehicle while operating the vehicle on a highway, except that a

1-32     person may not be refused a license because of a physical defect if

1-33     common experience shows that the defect does not incapacitate a

 2-1     person from safely operating a motor vehicle; [or]

 2-2                 (7)  has been reported by a court under Section 729.003

 2-3     for failure to appear or for default in payment of a fine unless

 2-4     the court has filed an additional report on final disposition of

 2-5     the case; or

 2-6                 (8)  has been reported by a court for failure to appear

 2-7     or  default in payment of a fine for a misdemeanor that is not

 2-8     covered under Subdivision (7) and that is punishable by a fine

 2-9     only, including a misdemeanor under a municipal ordinance,

2-10     committed by a person who was under 17 years of age at the time of

2-11     the alleged offense, unless the court has filed an additional

2-12     report on final disposition of the case.

2-13           SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1997.

2-14           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the

2-15     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

2-16     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

2-17     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

2-18     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.