By Siebert                                            H.B. No. 2858
         76R7221 SMJ-D                           
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to the authority of certain taxing entities to repeal the
 1-3     local sales and use tax exemption for telecommunications services.
 1-4           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-5           SECTION 1.  Section 322.109, Tax Code, is amended by amending
 1-6     Subsection (b), adding a new Subsection (d), and redesignating
 1-7     existing Subsection (d) as (e) to read as follows:
 1-8           (b)  Except as provided by Subsection (d), the [The] board of
 1-9     a taxing entity may, by a majority vote of the board in the manner
1-10     required for the adoption of other orders, repeal the application
1-11     of the exemption provided by Subsection (a) for telecommunications
1-12     services sold within the city.
1-13           (d)  The governing board of a taxing entity created under
1-14     Chapter 451, Transportation Code, may not repeal the application of
1-15     the exemption provided by Subsection (a) unless the repeal is first
1-16     approved by a majority of the members of the governing body of each
1-17     municipality that created the taxing entity.  A reinstatement of
1-18     the exemption must be approved in the same manner.
1-19           (e) [(d)]  A vote of a taxing entity board repealing the
1-20     application of or reinstating the exemption must be entered in the
1-21     minutes of the entity.  The entity board chairman or secretary
1-22     shall send to the comptroller by United States certified or
1-23     registered mail a copy of each order adopted under this section.
1-24     The repeal of the application of the exemption or a reinstated
 2-1     exemption takes effect within the entity on the first day of the
 2-2     first calendar quarter after the expiration of the first complete
 2-3     calendar quarter after the date on which the comptroller receives a
 2-4     copy of the order.
 2-5           SECTION 2.  The change in law made by this Act applies only
 2-6     to an exemption provided by Section 322.109, Tax Code, that has not
 2-7     been repealed before the effective date of this Act.
 2-8           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
 2-9     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
2-10     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
2-11     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
2-12     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
2-13     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
2-14     passage, and it is so enacted.