1-1 By: Oakley (Senate Sponsor - Brown) H.B. No. 2617
1-2 (In the Senate - Received from the House May 2, 1997;
1-3 May 5, 1997, read first time and referred to Committee on Finance;
1-4 May 18, 1997, reported favorably by the following vote: Yeas 13,
1-5 Nays 0; May 18, 1997, sent to printer.)
1-6 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
1-7 AN ACT
1-8 relating to the assessment of certain court costs in criminal cases
1-9 and the use of that revenue to fund the Bill Blackwood Law
1-10 Enforcement Management Institute.
1-11 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-12 SECTION 1. Section 415.082(a), Government Code, is amended
1-13 to read as follows:
1-14 (a) A person convicted of a criminal offense shall pay as
1-15 court costs $4 [$3.50] in addition to other taxable court costs.
1-16 These additional court costs shall be collected in the same manner
1-17 that other fines or court costs in the case are collected. Subject
1-18 to amounts retained under Section 415.083(d), the costs collected
1-19 under this subsection shall be deposited in the state treasury as
1-20 follows:
1-21 (1) $1 to the credit of the law enforcement officer
1-22 standards and education account for administrative expenses;
1-23 (2) $2 to the credit of the law enforcement officer
1-24 standards and education account for expenses related to the
1-25 continuing education of persons licensed under this chapter; and
1-26 (3) $1 [50 cents] to the credit of the Bill Blackwood
1-27 Law Enforcement Management Institute of Texas fund established
1-28 under Section 96.64 [96.64(l)], Education Code.
1-29 SECTION 2. Section 96.64, Education Code, is amended by
1-30 adding Subsection (e) to read as follows:
1-31 (e) The board of regents of the Texas State University
1-32 System may acquire, purchase, construct, improve, renovate,
1-33 enlarge, or equip property, buildings, structures, facilities,
1-34 roads, or related infrastructure for the institute to be financed
1-35 by the issuance of bonds in accordance with Subchapter B, Chapter
1-36 55. The board of regents may pledge irrevocably to the payment of
1-37 those bonds a portion of the proceeds of the Bill Blackwood Law
1-38 Enforcement Management Institute of Texas fund. The amount of a
1-39 pledge made under this subsection may not be reduced or abrogated
1-40 while the bonds for which the pledge is made, or bonds issued to
1-41 refund those bonds, are outstanding.
1-42 SECTION 3. This Act takes effect September 1, 1997.
1-43 SECTION 4. The change in law made by Section 1 of this Act
1-44 applies only to a conviction of a criminal offense that occurs on
1-45 or after the effective date of this Act.
1-46 SECTION 5. The importance of this legislation and the
1-47 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 * * * * *