1-1     By:  Oliveira (Senate Sponsor - Harris)               H.B. No. 1477
 1-2           (In the Senate - Received from the House March 29, 1999;
 1-3     March 30, 1999, read first time and referred to Committee on
 1-4     Intergovernmental Relations; May 6, 1999, rereferred to Committee
 1-5     on Jurisprudence; May 11, 1999, reported favorably by the following
 1-6     vote:  Yeas 3, Nays 0; May 11, 1999, sent to printer.)
 1-7                            A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-8                                   AN ACT
 1-9     relating to the amount of court costs imposed for the support of
1-10     the county law library.
1-11           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-12           SECTION 1.  Section 323.023(a), Local Government Code, is
1-13     amended to read as follows:
1-14           (a)  A sum set by the commissioners court not to exceed $35
1-15     [$20] shall be taxed, collected, and paid as other costs in each
1-16     civil  case filed in a county or district court, except suits for
1-17     delinquent taxes.  The county is not liable for the costs.
1-18           SECTION 2.  This Act applies to a civil case filed in a
1-19     county or district court on or after the effective date of an
1-20     action taken by a commissioners court under Section 323.023(a),
1-21     Local Government Code, as amended by this Act.  A civil case filed
1-22     before the effective date of an action taken by a commissioners
1-23     court under Section 323.023(a), Local Government Code, as amended
1-24     by this Act, is governed by the law in effect when the case was
1-25     filed, and that law is continued in effect for that purpose.
1-26           SECTION 3.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1999.
1-27           SECTION 4.  The importance of this legislation and the
1-28     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
1-29     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
1-30     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
1-31     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.
1-32                                  * * * * *