By Madla                                        S.B. No. 1061

      75R4435 DWS-D                           

                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

 1-1                                   AN ACT

 1-2     relating to an optional county fee for vehicle registration to be

 1-3     used for air and water quality programs.

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

 1-5           SECTION 1.  Subchapter D, Chapter 502, Transportation Code,

 1-6     is amended by adding Section 502.1731 to read as follows:

 1-7           Sec. 502.1731.  OPTIONAL COUNTY FEE FOR AIR AND WATER QUALITY

 1-8     PROGRAMS.  (a) A commissioners court of a county by order may

 1-9     impose an additional fee of 50 cents for registering a vehicle in

1-10     the county.  The commissioners court may remove the fee by

1-11     rescinding the order.

1-12           (b)  A vehicle that may be registered under this chapter

1-13     without payment of a registration fee may be registered in a county

1-14     imposing a fee under this section without payment of the additional

1-15     fee.

1-16           (c)  The county shall notify the department of imposition or

1-17     removal of a fee under this section not later than one month before

1-18     the date the imposition or removal of the fee takes effect.

1-19           (d)  The county assessor-collector of a county imposing a fee

1-20     under this section shall collect the additional fee for a vehicle

1-21     when other fees imposed under this chapter are collected.

1-22           (e)  The department shall collect the additional fee on a

1-23     vehicle that is owned by a resident of a county imposing a fee

1-24     under this section and that, under this chapter, must be registered

 2-1     directly with the department.  The department shall send all fees

 2-2     collected for a county under this subsection to the county

 2-3     treasurer.

 2-4           (f)  The department shall adopt rules and develop forms

 2-5     necessary to administer registration by mail for a vehicle being

 2-6     registered in a county imposing a fee under this section.

 2-7           (g)  The county may use the money collected as fees under

 2-8     this section only for air and water quality programs.

 2-9           SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the

2-10     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

2-11     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

2-12     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

2-13     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,

2-14     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its

2-15     passage, and it is so enacted.