By Jackson                                             S.B. No. 765
         76R4870 SMJ-F                           
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to county fees for keeping wild animals.
 1-3           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-4           SECTION 1.  Subchapter A, Chapter 240, Local Government Code,
 1-5     is amended by adding Section 240.0026 to read as follows:
 1-6           Sec.  240.0026.  FEES.  (a) The commissioners court of a
 1-7     county may establish a fee for each wild animal regulated under
 1-8     this subchapter  to recover the costs associated with that
 1-9     regulation. The fee may be collected only from the person who keeps
1-10     a wild animal subject to this subchapter.
1-11           (b)  The total fees may not exceed $500 for a person,
1-12     regardless of the number of wild animals the person keeps.
1-13           (c)  The county may use the fees collected under this section
1-14     only for the purpose of administering this subchapter.
1-15           SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
1-16     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
1-17     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
1-18     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
1-19     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
1-20     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
1-21     passage, and it is so enacted.