By Alexander                                          H.B. No. 2462
         76R6228 DRH-F                           
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to registration and operation of certain farm vehicles and
 1-3     trailers.
 1-4           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-5           SECTION 1.  Section 502.163(a), Transportation Code, is
 1-6     amended to read as follows:
 1-7           (a)  The registration fee for a commercial motor vehicle as a
 1-8     farm vehicle is 50 percent of the applicable fee under Section
 1-9     502.162 if the [vehicle's owner will use the] vehicle will be used
1-10     for commercial purposes only to transport:
1-11                 (1)  [the person's own] poultry, [dairy,] livestock,
1-12     livestock products, timber in its natural state, or agricultural
1-13     [farm] products to market or another place for sale, [or]
1-14     processing, use, or consumption;
1-15                 (2)  laborers from their place of residence to the
1-16     owner's farm or ranch; or
1-17                 (3)  without charge, materials, tools, equipment, or
1-18     supplies from the place of purchase or storage to a [the owner's
1-19     farm or ranch exclusively for the owner's use or for use on the]
1-20     farm or ranch.
1-21           SECTION 2.  Section 502.276(c), Transportation Code, is
1-22     amended to read as follows:
1-23           (c)  A vehicle that has [An owner who obtains] a
1-24     distinguishing license plate issued under Subsection (b) may be
 2-1     operated [operate] temporarily on the highways if the vehicle is:
 2-2                 (1)  a farm trailer or farm semitrailer with a gross
 2-3     weight of more than 4,000 pounds but not more than 34,000 pounds
 2-4     that is used exclusively to transport:
 2-5                       (A)  [the owner's] seasonally harvested
 2-6     agricultural products or [and] livestock from the place of
 2-7     production to the place of processing, market, or storage; or
 2-8                       (B)  farm supplies from the place of loading to
 2-9     the farm;
2-10                 (2)  machinery used exclusively for the purpose of
2-11     drilling water wells; or
2-12                 (3)  construction machinery that is not designed to
2-13     transport persons or property on a public highway.
2-14           SECTION 3.  Section 1 of this Act takes effect September 1,
2-15     1999, and applies only to a commercial motor vehicle registered as
2-16     a farm vehicle under Section 502.163, Transportation Code, on or
2-17     after that date.
2-18           SECTION 4.  The importance of this legislation and the
2-19     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
2-20     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
2-21     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
2-22     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
2-23     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
2-24     passage, and it is so enacted.