By Uher                                               H.B. No. 3600

         75R12059 PAM-D                           

                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

 1-1                                   AN ACT

 1-2     relating to the authority of municipalities to exercise the right

 1-3     of eminent domain.

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

 1-5           SECTION 1.  Section 251.001, Local Government Code, is

 1-6     amended by adding Subsection (c) to read as follows:

 1-7           (c)  A municipality may not exercise the right of eminent

 1-8     domain to acquire public or private property for the purpose of

 1-9     promoting economic development in the municipality if the purpose

1-10     of the economic development of the property to be acquired is to

1-11     establish a business enterprise that sells goods at retail.

1-12           SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the

1-13     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

1-14     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

1-15     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

1-16     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,

1-17     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its

1-18     passage, and it is so enacted.