By Telford                                      H.B. No. 1398

      75R4751 CBH-F                           

                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

 1-1                                   AN ACT

 1-2     relating to the exemption from the sales and use tax of certain

 1-3     machinery or equipment used in timber production.

 1-4           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

 1-5           SECTION 1.  Section 151.3161(a), Tax Code, is amended to read

 1-6     as follows:

 1-7           (a)  Machinery and [The first $50,000 of the purchase price

 1-8     of each unit of machinery or] equipment used exclusively in a

 1-9     commercial timber operation  to prepare the site, plant, cultivate,

1-10     or harvest timber in the regular course of business are [is]

1-11     exempted from the taxes imposed by this chapter.

1-12           SECTION 2.  (a)  This Act takes effect on the first day of

1-13     the first calendar quarter beginning on or after the earliest date

1-14     that it may take effect under Section 39, Article III, Texas

1-15     Constitution.

1-16           (b)  The change in law made by this Act does not affect taxes

1-17     imposed before the effective date of this Act, and the law in

1-18     effect before that date is continued in effect for purposes of the

1-19     liability for and collection of those  taxes.

1-20           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the

1-21     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

1-22     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

1-23     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

1-24     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,

 2-1     and that this Act take effect and be in force according to its

 2-2     terms, and it is so enacted.