1-1     By:  Luna                                              S.B. No. 660

 1-2           (In the Senate - Filed February 19, 1997; February 24, 1997,

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

 1-4     Relations; April 1, 1997, reported favorably by the following vote:

 1-5     Yeas 11, Nays 0; April 1, 1997, sent to printer.)

 1-6                            A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

 1-7                                   AN ACT

 1-8     relating to the operation of a county sick leave pool program.

 1-9           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

1-10           SECTION 1.  Subdivision (2), Section 157.071, Local

1-11     Government Code, is amended to read as follows:

1-12                 (2)  "Employee" means a district, county, or precinct

1-13     employee with 12 or more months of continuous employment with the

1-14     district, county, or precinct who is paid from the general fund of

1-15     the county, from a special fund of the county, or from special

1-16     grants paid through the county.

1-17           SECTION 2.  Subsection (b), Section 157.074, Local Government

1-18     Code, is amended to read as follows:

1-19           (b)  On approval by the administrator, in a fiscal year the

1-20     employee may transfer to the county sick leave pool not less than

1-21     one day or more than five [three] days of accrued sick leave time,

1-22     or accrued vacation leave time in a county operating under Section

1-23     157.072(b), earned by the employee.  The administrator shall credit

1-24     the pool with the amount of time contributed by the employee and

1-25     shall deduct the same amount of time from the amount to which the

1-26     employee is entitled, as if the employee had used the time for

1-27     personal purposes.

1-28           SECTION 3.  Subsection (a), Section 157.075, Local Government

1-29     Code, is amended to read as follows:

1-30           (a)  An employee is eligible to use time contributed to the

1-31     county sick leave pool if, because of a catastrophic injury or

1-32     illness [or because of a previous donation of sick leave time to

1-33     the pool], the employee has exhausted all the accrued paid leave

1-34     and compensatory [sick leave] time to which the employee is

1-35     otherwise entitled.

1-36           SECTION 4.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1997.

1-37           SECTION 5.  The importance of this legislation and the

1-38     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

1-39     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

1-40     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

1-41     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.

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