By Palmer                                              H.B. No. 948
         76R4603 CAG-D                           
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to the disposition and use of a fine for the violation of
 1-3     a county fireworks ordinance.
 1-4           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-5           SECTION 1.  Section 240.904, Local Government Code, is
 1-6     amended by adding Subsection (j) to read as follows:
 1-7           (j)  A fire department or fire marshal's office may enforce
 1-8     this section.  A fine collected under this section less any
 1-9     mandatory state fees shall be deposited in the county treasury to
1-10     the credit of the county's fire-fighting and fire prevention
1-11     departments.  The commissioners court may appropriate the funds
1-12     deposited under this subsection only to a fire department or fire
1-13     marshal's office in the county that has issued a citation under
1-14     this section. The funds may be used only for fire safety or fire
1-15     prevention purposes.
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.