1-1     By:  Green (Senate Sponsor - Armbrister)              H.B. No. 1666
 1-2           (In the Senate - Received from the House May 11, 1999;
 1-3     May 12, 1999, read first time and referred to Committee on
 1-4     Intergovernmental Relations; May 14, 1999, reported favorably by
 1-5     the following vote:  Yeas 4, Nays 0; May 14, 1999, sent to
 1-6     printer.)
 1-7                            A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-8                                   AN ACT
 1-9     relating to the operation of the Nixon Hospital District of
1-10     Gonzales and Wilson Counties, Texas, and Gonzales Healthcare
1-11     Systems.
1-12           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-13           SECTION 1.  Section 3, Chapter 644, Acts of the 59th
1-14     Legislature, Regular Session, 1965, is amended to read as follows:
1-15           Sec. 3.  (a)  The District authorized to be created by this
1-16     Act is charged with the responsibility of establishing a hospital
1-17     or a hospital system or a clinic within its boundaries to furnish
1-18     hospital and medical care to the residents of the District.  After
1-19     this District is created as provided in Section 4 of this Act, no
1-20     other municipality or political subdivision of this State may levy
1-21     taxes or issue bonds or other obligations of indebtedness for the
1-22     purpose of providing hospital service or medical care within the
1-23     District.  This District shall provide all necessary hospital and
1-24     medical care for the needy inhabitants of the District.
1-25           (b)  The District may contract with Gonzales Healthcare
1-26     Systems for Gonzales Healthcare Systems to lease, manage, or
1-27     operate a health care facility located in the District.
1-28           SECTION 2.  Section 10(a), Chapter 191, Acts of the 64th
1-29     Legislature, Regular Session, 1975, is amended to read as follows:
1-30           (a)  The board of directors is hereby given complete
1-31     discretion as to the type of buildings, both as to number and
1-32     location, required to establish and maintain an adequate hospital
1-33     system.  The hospital system may include facilities deemed
1-34     necessary for hospital care by the directors.  The district,
1-35     through its board of directors, is further authorized to enter into
1-36     an operating or management contract with regard to its facilities
1-37     or a part thereof or may lease all or part of its buildings and
1-38     facilities on terms and conditions considered to be to the best
1-39     interest of its inhabitants.  The district, through its board of
1-40     directors, may contract with the Nixon Hospital District of
1-41     Gonzales and Wilson Counties, Texas, for the district to lease,
1-42     manage, or operate a health care facility located in the Nixon
1-43     Hospital District of Gonzales and Wilson Counties.  The district
1-44     shall be empowered to sell or otherwise dispose of any property,
1-45     real or personal, or equipment of any nature on terms and
1-46     conditions found by the board to be in the best interest of its
1-47     inhabitants.
1-48           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
1-49     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
1-50     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
1-51     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
1-52     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
1-53     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
1-54     passage, and it is so enacted.
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