By:  Haywood                                  S.B. No. 157

                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

                                       AN ACT

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

 1-2     county attorney's office to prosecute mental health matters

 1-3     involving persons residing outside the county.

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

 1-5           SECTION 1.  Subchapter B, Chapter 45, Government Code, is

 1-6     amended by adding Section 45.344 to read as follows:

 1-7           Sec. 45.344.  WILBARGER COUNTY.  The county attorney is

 1-8     entitled to a fee for the prosecution of cases arising under

 1-9     Chapter 574, Health and Safety Code, in which the patient or

1-10     proposed patient is a resident of a county other than Wilbarger

1-11     County.  The fee is equal to the fee paid to a court-appointed

1-12     attorney to represent the patient or proposed patient at each

1-13     hearing.  The fee shall be taxed as costs and paid from the general

1-14     fund of the county of residence of the patient or proposed patient.

1-15     Wilbarger County shall deposit the fees collected under this

1-16     section in the county fund from which the salaries of employees of

1-17     the county attorney are paid or supplemented.

1-18           SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1997, and

1-19     applies only to hearings held on or after that date.

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

 2-1     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.