By Haywood                                       S.B. No. 157

      75R3036 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     county 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.  Subchapter B, Chapter 45, Government Code, is

 1-7     amended by adding Section 45.344 to read as follows:

 1-8           Sec. 45.344.  WILBARGER COUNTY.  The county attorney is

 1-9     entitled to a fee for the prosecution of cases arising under

1-10     Chapter 574, Health and Safety Code, in which the patient or

1-11     proposed patient is a resident of a county other than Wilbarger

1-12     County.  The fee is equal to the fee paid to a court-appointed

1-13     attorney to represent the patient or proposed patient at each

1-14     hearing.  The fee shall be taxed as costs and paid from the general

1-15     fund of the county of residence of the patient or proposed patient.

1-16     Wilbarger County shall deposit the fees collected under this

1-17     section in the county fund from which the salaries of employees of

1-18     the county attorney are paid or supplemented.

1-19           SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1997, and

1-20     applies only to hearings held on or after that date.

1-21           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the

1-22     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

1-23     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

1-24     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

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