By Carona                                              S.B. No. 698
         76R6494 JMM-F                           
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to the computation of the initial contribution rate for
 1-3     certain employers for purposes of unemployment compensation.
 1-4           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-5           SECTION 1.  Section 204.006(a), Labor Code, is amended to
 1-6     read as follows:
 1-7           (a)  A person's contribution rate for the calendar year in
 1-8     which the person becomes an employer is the greater of:
 1-9                 (1)  the rate established for that year for the major
1-10     group to which the employer is assigned under Section 204.004; or
1-11                 (2)  if the person employs:
1-12                       (A)  100 or fewer employees, one percent; and
1-13                       (B)  more than 100 employees, two and
1-14     seven-tenths percent.
1-15           SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1999, and
1-16     applies only to the computation of an unemployment compensation
1-17     rate made by the Texas Workforce Commission on or after January 1,
1-18     2000.  A contribution rate computed before January 1, 2000, is
1-19     governed by the law in effect on the date the rate was computed,
1-20     and the former law is continued in effect for that purpose.
1-21           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
1-22     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
1-23     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
1-24     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
 2-1     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.