1-1     By:  Pickett, Hinojosa (Senate Sponsor - Lucio)       H.B. No. 2725
 1-2           (In the Senate - Received from the House May 5, 1999;
 1-3     May 6, 1999, read first time and referred to Committee on State
 1-4     Affairs; May 14, 1999, reported favorably by the following vote:
 1-5     Yeas 8, Nays 0; May 14, 1999, sent to printer.)
 1-6                            A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-7                                   AN ACT
 1-8     relating to the collection of costs in criminal cases.
 1-9           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-10           SECTION 1.  Article 103.003, Code of Criminal Procedure, is
1-11     amended by adding Subsection (c) to read as follows:
1-12           (c)  This article does not limit the authority of a county to
1-13     contract with a public or private vendor for the provision of
1-14     collection services under Article 103.0031.
1-15           SECTION 2.  Article 103.0031, Code of Criminal Procedure, is
1-16     amended to read as follows:
1-17           Art. 103.0031.  COLLECTION CONTRACTS.  (a)  The commissioners
1-18     court of a county may enter into a contract with a public or
1-19     private vendor for the provision of collection services for debts
1-20     and accounts receivable such as fines, fees, restitution, bond
1-21     forfeitures, and other debts or costs ordered to be paid by a court
1-22     serving the county.
1-23           (b)  A commissioners court that enters into a contract under
1-24     this article with a private attorney may authorize the addition of
1-25     attorney's fees on each debt or account receivable referred to the
1-26     attorney for collection, in an amount not to exceed 33 percent of
1-27     the account or debt.
1-28           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
1-29     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
1-30     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
1-31     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
1-32     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
1-33     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
1-34     passage, and it is so enacted.
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