1-1     By:  Jackson (Senate Sponsor - Patterson)             H.B. No. 1254

 1-2           (In the Senate - Received from the House April 27, 1997;

 1-3     April 29, 1997, read first time and referred to Committee on

 1-4     Intergovernmental Relations; May 8, 1997, reported favorably by the

 1-5     following vote:  Yeas 10, Nays 0; May 8, 1997, sent to printer.)

 1-6                            A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

 1-7                                   AN ACT

 1-8     relating to the validation of all acts, governmental proceedings,

 1-9     officials, bonds, and obligations of navigation districts and port

1-10     authorities.

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

1-12           SECTION 1.  DEFINITION.  In this Act, "district" means a

1-13     navigation district or a port authority created under Section 52,

1-14     Article III, or Section 59, Article XVI, Texas Constitution, or

1-15     other public port authority.

1-16           SECTION 2.  VALIDATION.  The following are validated and

1-17     confirmed in all respects:

1-18                 (1)  all acts and governmental proceedings of a

1-19     district not excepted in this Act taken before March 1, 1997, are

1-20     validated as of the dates on which they occurred;

1-21                 (2)  all commissioners or other officials of a

1-22     district, whether elected or appointed,  who took office before the

1-23     effective date of this Act; and

1-24                 (3)  all bonds and other obligations of a district

1-25     authorized before the effective date of this Act, including all

1-26     proceedings taken before the effective date of this Act that are

1-27     related to those bonds or other obligations, regardless of whether

1-28     the bonds or obligations are:

1-29                       (A)  payable from tax revenue or otherwise; or

1-30                       (B)  issued on or before the effective date of

1-31     this Act.

1-32           SECTION 3.  APPLICABILITY.  Section 2 of this Act does not

1-33     apply to:

1-34                 (1)  an act, proceeding, commissioner or official,

1-35     bond, or obligation the validity of which or of whom is the subject

1-36     of litigation that is pending on the effective date of this Act;

1-37                 (2)  an act or proceeding relating to the conveyance by

1-38     a district of any interest in real property that had originally

1-39     been patented or otherwise conveyed to the district by the state if

1-40     such act or proceeding by the district violated any restriction or

1-41     condition of the patent or other conveyance from the state; or

1-42                 (3)  an act or proceeding that violated Section 61.117,

1-43     Water Code.  This Act does not validate any governmental acts or

1-44     proceedings which, under the statutes of this state at the time the

1-45     actions or proceedings occurred, were a misdemeanor or a felony.

1-46           SECTION 4.  EMERGENCY.  The importance of this legislation

1-47     and the crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

1-48     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

1-49     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

1-50     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,

1-51     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its

1-52     passage, and it is so enacted.

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