1-1     By:  Brown of Brazos, et al. (Senate Sponsor - Ogden)  H.B. No. 323
 1-2           (In the Senate - Received from the House May 5, 1999;
 1-3     May 6, 1999, read first time and referred to Committee on
 1-4     Intergovernmental Relations; May 13, 1999, reported favorably by
 1-5     the following vote:  Yeas 5, Nays 0; May 13, 1999, sent to
 1-6     printer.)
 1-7                            A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-8                                   AN ACT
 1-9     relating to the jurisdiction of municipal courts.
1-10           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-11           SECTION 1.  Sections 29.003(a) and (b), Government Code, are
1-12     amended to read as follows:
1-13           (a)  A municipal court, including a municipal court of
1-14     record, shall have exclusive original jurisdiction within the
1-15     municipality's territorial limits and property owned by the
1-16     municipality located in the municipality's  extraterritorial
1-17     jurisdiction [of the municipality] in all criminal cases that:
1-18                 (1)  arise under the ordinances of the municipality;
1-19     and
1-20                 (2)  are punishable by a fine not to exceed:
1-21                       (A)  $2,000 in all cases arising under municipal
1-22     ordinances that govern fire safety, zoning, or public health and
1-23     sanitation, including dumping of refuse; or
1-24                       (B)  $500 in all other cases arising under a
1-25     municipal ordinance.
1-26           (b)  The municipal court has concurrent jurisdiction with the
1-27     justice court of a precinct in which the municipality is located in
1-28     all criminal cases arising under state law that:
1-29                 (1)  arise within the municipality's territorial limits
1-30     or property owned by the municipality located in the municipality's
1-31     extraterritorial jurisdiction [of the municipality] and are
1-32     punishable only by a fine, as defined in Subsection (c) [of this
1-33     section]; or
1-34                 (2)  arise under Chapter 106, Alcoholic Beverage Code,
1-35     and do not include confinement as an authorized sanction.
1-36           SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
1-37     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
1-38     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
1-39     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
1-40     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
1-41     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
1-42     passage, and it is so enacted.
1-43                                  * * * * *