1-1     By:  Pickett, Dukes, Swinford                          H.B. No. 152
 1-2          (Senate Sponsor - Shapleigh)
 1-3           (In the Senate - Received from the House April 26, 1999;
 1-4     April 27, 1999, read first time and referred to Committee on
 1-5     Criminal Justice; April 30, 1999, reported favorably by the
 1-6     following vote:  Yeas 7, Nays 0; April 30, 1999, sent to printer.)
 1-7                            A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-8                                   AN ACT
 1-9     relating to the punishment for the offense of graffiti.
1-10           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-11           SECTION 1.  Section 28.08(d), Penal Code, is amended to read
1-12     as follows:
1-13           (d)  An offense under this section is a state jail felony if:
1-14                 (1)  the marking is made on a school, an institution of
1-15     higher education, a  place of worship or human burial, a public
1-16     monument, or a community center that provides medical, social, or
1-17     educational programs; and
1-18                 (2)  the amount of the pecuniary loss to real property
1-19     or to tangible personal property is less than $20,000.
1-20           SECTION 2.  Section 28.08(e), Penal Code, is amended by
1-21     adding Subdivisions (3) and (4) to read as follows:
1-22                 (3)  "Institution of higher education" has the meaning
1-23     assigned by Section 481.134, Health and Safety Code.
1-24                 (4)  "School" means a private or public elementary or
1-25     secondary school.
1-26           SECTION 3.  (a)  The change in law made by this Act applies
1-27     only to an offense committed on or after the effective date of this
1-28     Act.  For purposes of this section, an offense is committed on or
1-29     after the effective date of this Act if every element of the
1-30     offense occurs on or after the effective date.
1-31           (b)  An offense committed before the effective date of this
1-32     Act is covered by the law in effect when the offense was committed,
1-33     and the former law is continued in effect for that purpose.
1-34           SECTION 4.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1999.
1-35           SECTION 5.  The importance of this legislation and the
1-36     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
1-37     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
1-38     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
1-39     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.
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