By:  Duncan                                  S.B. No. 1173

         97S0770/1                           

                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

                                       AN ACT

 1-1     relating to additional officeholdings by municipal court judges.

 1-2           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

 1-3           SECTION 1.  Section 574.001, Government Code, is amended to

 1-4     read as follows:

 1-5           Sec. 574.001.  FINDING OF CONSTITUTIONAL COMPLIANCE.  (a)  A

 1-6     nonelective state officer may not accept an offer to serve in

 1-7     another nonelective office unless the officer obtains from the

 1-8     governing body or, if there is not a governing body, the executive

 1-9     head of the agency, division, department, or institution with which

1-10     the officer is associated a finding that the officer has satisfied

1-11     Article XVI, Section 40, of the Texas Constitution.

1-12           (b)  An appointed municipal judge may hold the position of

1-13     municipal judge in more than one municipality.  The holding of an

1-14     additional appointed office as municipal judge is of benefit to the

1-15     State of Texas.

1-16           SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the

1-17     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

1-18     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

1-19     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

1-20     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,

1-21     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its

1-22     passage, and it is so enacted.