1-1     By:  Siebert (Senate Sponsor - Wentworth)             H.B. No. 2858
 1-2           (In the Senate - Received from the House May 13, 1999;
 1-3     May 13, 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 authority of certain taxing entities to repeal the
1-10     local sales and use tax exemption for telecommunications services.
1-11           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-12           SECTION 1.  Section 322.109, Tax Code, is amended by amending
1-13     Subsection (b), adding a new Subsection (d), and redesignating
1-14     existing Subsection (d) as (e) to read as follows:
1-15           (b)  Except as provided by Subsection (d), the [The] board of
1-16     a taxing entity may, by a majority vote of the board in the manner
1-17     required for the adoption of other orders, repeal the application
1-18     of the exemption provided by Subsection (a) for telecommunications
1-19     services sold within the city.
1-20           (d)  The governing board of a taxing entity created under
1-21     Chapter 451, Transportation Code, may not repeal the application of
1-22     the exemption provided by Subsection (a) unless the repeal is first
1-23     approved by a majority of the members of the governing body of each
1-24     municipality that created the taxing entity.  A reinstatement of
1-25     the exemption must be approved in the same manner.
1-26           (e) [(d)]  A vote of a taxing entity board repealing the
1-27     application of or reinstating the exemption must be entered in the
1-28     minutes of the entity.  The entity board chairman or secretary
1-29     shall send to the comptroller by United States certified or
1-30     registered mail a copy of each order adopted under this section.
1-31     The repeal of the application of the exemption or a reinstated
1-32     exemption takes effect within the entity on the first day of the
1-33     first calendar quarter after the expiration of the first complete
1-34     calendar quarter after the date on which the comptroller receives a
1-35     copy of the order.
1-36           SECTION 2.  The change in law made by this Act applies only
1-37     to an exemption provided by Section 322.109, Tax Code, that has not
1-38     been repealed before the effective date of this Act.
1-39           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
1-40     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
1-41     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
1-42     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
1-43     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
1-44     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
1-45     passage, and it is so enacted.
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