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.