By Dunnam                                             H.B. No. 2918
         76R4271 JMC-D                           
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to the time payment fee collected by certain courts and to
 1-3     a study by the Office of Court Administration of the Texas Judicial
 1-4     System of alternative funding mechanisms for that fee.
 1-5           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-6           SECTION 1.  (a)  The Office of Court Administration of the
 1-7     Texas Judicial System shall identify and study various funding
 1-8     mechanisms each of which is capable of generating for the same
 1-9     entities substantially the same amount of revenue generated by the
1-10     collection of fees under Section 51.921, Government Code.
1-11           (b)  Not later than December 1, 2000, the Office of Court
1-12     Administration of the Texas Judicial System shall report to the
1-13     legislature on the results of the study conducted under Subsection
1-14     (a) of this section, including the recommendation of an alternative
1-15     funding mechanism to the collection of fees under Section 51.921,
1-16     Government Code.
1-17           SECTION 2.  Subchapter K, Chapter 51, Government Code, is
1-18     repealed.
1-19           SECTION 3.  (a)  Section 1 of this Act takes effect September
1-20     1, 1999.
1-21           (b)  Section 2 of this Act takes effect September 1, 2001.
1-22           SECTION 4.  The importance of this legislation and the
1-23     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
1-24     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
 2-1     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
 2-2     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.