1-1     By:  Jackson                                           S.B. No. 296
 1-2           (In the Senate - Filed January 27, 1999; February 1, 1999,
 1-3     read first time and referred to Committee on Natural Resources;
 1-4     March 25, 1999, reported favorably by the following vote:  Yeas 6,
 1-5     Nays 0; March 25, 1999, sent to printer.)
 1-6                            A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-7                                   AN ACT
 1-8     relating to the validation of all acts, governmental proceedings,
 1-9     officials, bonds, and obligations of navigation districts and port
1-10     authorities.
1-11           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-12           SECTION 1.  DEFINITION.  In this Act, "district" means a
1-13     navigation district or a port authority created under Section 52,
1-14     Article III, or Section 59, Article XVI, Texas Constitution, or
1-15     other public port authority.
1-16           SECTION 2.  VALIDATION.  The following are validated and
1-17     confirmed in all respects:
1-18                 (1)  all acts and governmental proceedings of a
1-19     district not excepted in this Act taken before March 1, 1999, are
1-20     validated as of the dates on which they occurred;
1-21                 (2)  all commissioners or other officials of a
1-22     district, whether elected or appointed, who took office before the
1-23     effective date of this Act; and
1-24                 (3)  all bonds and other obligations of a district
1-25     authorized before the effective date of this Act, including all
1-26     proceedings taken before the effective date of this Act that are
1-27     related to those bonds or other obligations, regardless of whether
1-28     the bonds or obligations are:
1-29                       (A)  payable from tax revenue or otherwise; or
1-30                       (B)  issued on or before the effective date of
1-31     this Act.
1-32           SECTION 3.  APPLICABILITY.  (a)  Section 2 of this Act does
1-33     not apply to:
1-34                 (1)  an act, proceeding, commissioner or official,
1-35     bond, or obligation the validity of which or of whom is the subject
1-36     of litigation that is pending on the effective date of this Act;
1-37                 (2)  an act or proceeding relating to the conveyance by
1-38     a district of any interest in real property that had originally
1-39     been patented or otherwise conveyed to the district by the state if
1-40     such act or proceeding by the district violated any restriction or
1-41     condition of the patent or other conveyance from the state; or
1-42                 (3)  an act or proceeding that violated Section 61.117,
1-43     Water Code.
1-44           (b)  This Act does not validate any governmental acts or
1-45     proceedings which, under the statutes of this state at the time the
1-46     acts or proceedings occurred, were a misdemeanor or a felony.
1-47           SECTION 4.  EMERGENCY.  The importance of this legislation
1-48     and the crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
1-49     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
1-50     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
1-51     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
1-52     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
1-53     passage, and it is so enacted.
1-54                                  * * * * *