By Ehrhardt                                            H.B. No. 987
         76R4695 SMJ-D                           
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to the rate of the state sales and use tax.
 1-3           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-4           SECTION 1.  Section 151.051(b), Tax Code, is amended to read
 1-5     as follows:
 1-6           (b)  The sales tax rate is 5-3/4 [6-1/4] percent of the sales
 1-7     price of the taxable item sold.
 1-8           SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect October 1, 1999, and
 1-9     applies to a sale, storage, use, or other consumption of a taxable
1-10     item under Chapter 151, Tax Code, on or after that date.  The sale,
1-11     storage, use, or other consumption of a taxable item before the
1-12     effective date of this Act is governed by the law in effect at the
1-13     time of the transaction, and that law is continued in effect for
1-14     the enforcement and collection of those taxes.
1-15           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
1-16     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
1-17     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
1-18     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
1-19     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.