By Haywood                                             S.B. No. 106

      75R1566 MLS-D                           

                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

 1-1                                   AN ACT

 1-2     relating to the reimbursement to Wilbarger County for use of the

 1-3     district attorney's office to prosecute mental health matters

 1-4     involving persons residing outside the county.

 1-5           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

 1-6           SECTION 1.  Section 43.126, Government Code, is amended to

 1-7     read as follows:

 1-8           Sec. 43.126.  46TH JUDICIAL DISTRICT.  (a)  The voters of the

 1-9     46th Judicial District elect a district attorney.

1-10           (b)  The district attorney is entitled to a fee for the

1-11     prosecution of cases arising under Chapter 574, Health and Safety

1-12     Code, in which the patient or proposed patient is a resident of a

1-13     county other than Wilbarger County.  The fee is equal to the fee

1-14     paid to a court-appointed attorney to represent the patient or

1-15     proposed patient at each hearing.  The fee shall be taxed as costs

1-16     and paid from the general fund of the county of residence of the

1-17     patient or proposed patient.  Wilbarger County shall deposit the

1-18     fees collected under this section in the county fund from which the

1-19     salaries of employees of the district attorney are paid or

1-20     supplemented.

1-21           SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1997, and

1-22     applies only to hearings held on or after that date.

1-23           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the

1-24     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

 2-1     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

 2-2     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

 2-3     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.