By:  Cain                                              S.B. No. 518
         99S0326/1                           
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
                                       AN ACT
 1-1     relating to registration of certain farm vehicles and trailers.
 1-2           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-3           SECTION 1.  Subsection (a), Section 502.163, Transportation
 1-4     Code, is amended to read as follows:
 1-5           (a)  The registration fee for a commercial motor vehicle as a
 1-6     farm vehicle is 50 percent of the applicable fee under Section
 1-7     502.162 if the [vehicle's owner will use the] vehicle will be used
 1-8     for commercial purposes only to transport:
 1-9                 (1)  [the person's own] poultry, [dairy,] livestock,
1-10     livestock products, timber in its natural state, or agricultural
1-11     [farm] products to market or another place for sale or processing,
1-12     use, or consumption;
1-13                 (2)  laborers from their place of residence to the
1-14     owner's farm or ranch; or
1-15                 (3)  without charge, materials, tools, equipment, or
1-16     supplies from the place of purchase or storage to a [the owner's
1-17     farm or ranch exclusively for the owner's use or for use on the]
1-18     farm or ranch.
1-19           SECTION 2.  Subsection (c), Section 502.276, Transportation
1-20     Code, is amended to read as follows:
1-21           (c)(1)  An owner who obtains a distinguishing license plate
1-22     under Subsection (b) may operate temporarily on the highways:
1-23                 [(1)  a farm trailer or farm semitrailer with a gross
1-24     weight of more than 4,000 pounds but not more than 34,000 pounds
 2-1     that is used exclusively to transport:]
 2-2                       (A)  [the owner's seasonally harvested
 2-3     agricultural products and livestock from the place of production to
 2-4     the place of processing, market, or storage; or]
 2-5                       [(B)  farm supplies from the place of loading to
 2-6     the farm;]
 2-7                 [(2)]  machinery used exclusively for the purpose of
 2-8     drilling water wells; or
 2-9                       (B)[(3)]  construction machinery that is not
2-10     designed to transport persons or property on a public highway.
2-11                 (2)  A farm trailer or farm semitrailer with a gross
2-12     weight of more than 4,000 pounds but not more than 34,000 pounds
2-13     that is used exclusively to transport seasonally harvested
2-14     agricultural products or livestock from the place of production to
2-15     the place of processing, market, or storage or to transport farm
2-16     supplies or equipment from the place of loading to the farm may be
2-17     temporarily operated on the highways if the farm trailer or farm
2-18     semitrailer bears a distinguishing license plate obtained under
2-19     Subsection (b).
2-20           SECTION 3.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1999.
2-21           SECTION 4.  The importance of this legislation and the
2-22     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
2-23     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
2-24     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
2-25     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.