By Solis of Bexar                                     H.B. No. 2063
         76R7451 JRD-D                           
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to allowing local registrars and municipal clerks to
 1-3     charge a records management and preservation fee.
 1-4           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-5           SECTION 1.  Section 191.0045, Health and Safety Code, is
 1-6     amended by amending Subsections (d) and (g) and adding Subsection
 1-7     (h) to read as follows:
 1-8           (d)  A local registrar who issues a certified copy of a birth
 1-9     or death certificate shall charge the same fees as charged by the
1-10     bureau of vital statistics, including the additional fee required
1-11     under Subsection (e), except as provided by Subsections
1-12     [Subsection] (g) and (h).
1-13           (g)  A local registrar that on March 31, 1995, was charging a
1-14     fee for the issuance of a certified copy of a birth certificate
1-15     that exceeded the fee charged by the bureau of vital statistics for
1-16     the same type of certificate may continue to do so but shall not
1-17     raise this fee until the fee charged by the bureau exceeds the fee
1-18     charged by the local registrar, except as provided by Subsection
1-19     (h).  A local registrar to which this subsection  applies shall
1-20     charge the additional fee as required under Subsection (e) and may
1-21     charge the additional fee allowed under Subsection (h).
1-22           (h)  In addition to other fees charged under this section, a
1-23     local registrar may charge a records management and preservation
1-24     fee not to exceed $1 for each copy or certified copy of a birth,
 2-1     death, or fetal death  record issued by the local registrar. The
 2-2     fee may be used only to provide funds for the management and
 2-3     preservation of birth, death, fetal death, and other vital
 2-4     statistics records maintained by the local registrar.
 2-5           SECTION 2.  Subtitle A, Title 6, Local Government Code, is
 2-6     amended by adding Chapter 190 to read as follows:
 2-7                     CHAPTER 190. MISCELLANEOUS RECORDS
 2-8                     PROVISIONS AFFECTING MUNICIPALITIES
 2-9           Sec. 190.001.  RECORDS MANAGEMENT AND PRESERVATION FEE.   In
2-10     addition to the amounts that a municipal clerk may charge  for
2-11     providing a copy of a document under Subchapter F, Chapter 552,
2-12     Government Code, or under another law, a municipal clerk may charge
2-13     a records management and preservation fee as an additional fee in
2-14     an amount equal to five percent of the amount the clerk would
2-15     otherwise charge for the copy.  Money received from the records
2-16     preservation fee may be used only for the management and
2-17     preservation of municipal records.
2-18           SECTION 3.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1999.
2-19           SECTION 4.  The importance of this legislation and the
2-20     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
2-21     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
2-22     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
2-23     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.