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.
1-56 * * * * *