1-1     By:  Jones of Lubbock (Senate Sponsor - Duncan)       H.B. No. 2997

 1-2           (In the Senate - Received from the House May 5, 1997;

 1-3     May 6, 1997, read first time and referred to Committee on State

 1-4     Affairs; May 16, 1997, reported favorably by the following vote:

 1-5     Yeas 13, Nays 0; May 16, 1997, sent to printer.)

 1-6                            A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

 1-7                                   AN ACT

 1-8     relating to the regulation of outdoor advertising in certain dry

 1-9     areas.

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

1-11           SECTION 1.  Section 108.56, Alcoholic Beverage Code, is

1-12     amended to read as follows:

1-13           Sec. 108.56.  DRY AREAS.  (a)  Except as provided by

1-14     Subsection (b), no [No] person may erect or maintain a billboard or

1-15     electric sign in an area or zone where the sale of alcoholic

1-16     beverages is prohibited by law.

1-17           (b)  A person may erect or maintain a billboard in an area or

1-18     zone where the sale of alcoholic beverages is prohibited by law if:

1-19                 (1)  the premises that the billboard advertises is

1-20     located in a county with a population of 250,000 or less; and

1-21                 (2)  the billboard is within 1,500 feet of the premises

1-22     that the billboard advertises; and

1-23                 (3)  a United States highway that merges into and

1-24     becomes an interstate highway separates the premises and the

1-25     billboard; or

1-26                 (4)  the billboard is located adjacent to a wet

1-27     precinct separated by a United States highway that merges into and

1-28     becomes an interstate highway in a county with a population of

1-29     250,000 or less and advertises directions to a winery located in

1-30     the adjacent wet precinct.

1-31           SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the

1-32     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

1-33     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

1-34     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

1-35     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,

1-36     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its

1-37     passage, and it is so enacted.

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