1-1     By:  Tillery, et al. (Senate Sponsor - Carona)        H.B. No. 1055

 1-2           (In the Senate - Received from the House May 16, 1997;

 1-3     May 16, 1997, read first time and referred to Committee on State

 1-4     Affairs; May 18, 1997, reported favorably by the following vote:

 1-5     Yeas 11, Nays 0; May 18, 1997, sent to printer.)

 1-6                            A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

 1-7                                   AN ACT

 1-8     relating to denial of a driver's license to a juvenile for failure

 1-9     to appear in court or pay a fine in connection with a misdemeanor.

1-10           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

1-11           SECTION 1.  Section 521.201, Transportation Code, is amended

1-12     to read as follows:

1-13           Sec. 521.201.  LICENSE INELIGIBILITY IN GENERAL.  The

1-14     department may not issue any license to a person who:

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

1-16                 (2)  is under 18 years of age unless the person

1-17     complies with the requirements imposed by Section 521.204;

1-18                 (3)  is shown to be addicted to the use of alcohol, a

1-19     controlled substance, or another drug that renders a person

1-20     incapable of driving;

1-21                 (4)  holds a driver's license issued by this state or

1-22     another state or country that is revoked, canceled, or under

1-23     suspension;

1-24                 (5)  has been determined by a judgment of a court to be

1-25     mentally incompetent unless the person has, by the date of the

1-26     license application, been:

1-27                       (A)  restored to competency by judicial decree;

1-28     or

1-29                       (B)  released from a hospital for the mentally

1-30     incompetent on a certificate by the superintendent of the hospital

1-31     that the person is competent;

1-32                 (6)  the department determines to be afflicted with a

1-33     mental or physical disability or disease that prevents the person

1-34     from exercising reasonable and ordinary control over a motor

1-35     vehicle while operating the vehicle on a highway, except that a

1-36     person may not be refused a license because of a physical defect if

1-37     common experience shows that the defect does not incapacitate a

1-38     person from safely operating a motor vehicle; [or]

1-39                 (7)  has been reported by a court under Section 729.003

1-40     for failure to appear or for default in payment of a fine unless

1-41     the court has filed an additional report on final disposition of

1-42     the case; or

1-43                 (8)  has been reported by a court for failure to appear

1-44     or  default in payment of a fine for a misdemeanor that is not

1-45     covered under Subdivision (7) and that is punishable by a fine

1-46     only, including a misdemeanor under a municipal ordinance,

1-47     committed by a person who was under 17 years of age at the time of

1-48     the alleged offense, unless the court has filed an additional

1-49     report on final disposition of the case.

1-50           SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1997.

1-51           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the

1-52     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

1-53     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

1-54     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

1-55     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.

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