1-1           By:  Armbrister                                  S.B. No. 325

 1-2           (In the Senate - Filed January 28, 1997; February 3, 1997,

 1-3     read first time and referred to Committee on Intergovernmental

 1-4     Relations; February 13, 1997, reported favorably by the following

 1-5     vote:  Yeas 8, Nays 3; February 13, 1997, sent to printer.)

 1-6                            A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

 1-7                                   AN ACT

 1-8     relating to investments by the boards of trustees of local

 1-9     retirement systems for firefighters.

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

1-11           SECTION 1.  Subsection (a), Section 27, Texas Local Fire

1-12     Fighters Retirement Act (Article 6243e, Vernon's Texas Civil

1-13     Statutes), is amended to read as follows:

1-14           (a)  A board of trustees established under this Act shall

1-15     keep a sufficient amount of cash on hand to make payments as they

1-16     become due under the retirement system.  If a board determines that

1-17     the fund of its retirement system contains an amount in excess of

1-18     the amount needed to make payments as they become due, the board

1-19     may invest any portion of the excess [in:]

1-20                 [(1)  bonds or other interest-bearing obligations and

1-21     securities of the United States, the state, or a political

1-22     subdivision of the state;]

1-23                 [(2)  shares and share accounts of savings and loan

1-24     associations to the extent that the shares and share accounts are

1-25     insured by the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corporation;]

1-26                 [(3)  first-lien real estate mortgage securities

1-27     insured by the Federal Housing Administration;]

1-28                 [(4)  bonds of companies incorporated within the United

1-29     States;]

1-30                 [(5)  common and preferred stocks of companies

1-31     incorporated within the United States that, unless the stocks are

1-32     bank or insurance stocks, are listed on an exchange registered with

1-33     the Securities and Exchange Commission or its successor;]

1-34                 [(6)  guaranteed investment contracts offered by

1-35     insurance companies;]

1-36                 [(7)  money market funds;]

1-37                 [(8)  mutual funds and other pooled funds;]

1-38                 [(9)  international stocks traded as American

1-39     depository receipts; and]

1-40                 [(10)  over-the-counter stocks].

1-41           SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the

1-42     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

1-43     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

1-44     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

1-45     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,

1-46     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its

1-47     passage, and it is so enacted.

1-48                                  * * * * *