By Shapiro                                             S.B. No. 875
         Substitute the following for S.B. No. 875:
         By Sadler                                          C.S.S.B. No. 875
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to the financial accountability of school districts.
 1-3           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-4           SECTION 1.  Chapter 39, Education Code, is amended by adding
 1-5     Subchapter I to read as follows:
 1-6                   SUBCHAPTER I. FINANCIAL ACCOUNTABILITY
 1-7           Sec. 39.201.  PROPOSED FINANCIAL ACCOUNTABILITY RATING
 1-8     SYSTEM.  (a)  The commissioner shall in consultation with the
 1-9     comptroller develop proposals for a school district accountability
1-10     rating system, to be presented to the Legislature no later than
1-11     December 15, 2000. This subsection expires September 1, 2001.
1-12           SECTION 2.  Subsection (e), Section 44.008, Education Code,
1-13     is amended to read as follows:
1-14           (e)  The audit reports shall be reviewed by the agency, and
1-15     the commissioner shall notify the board of trustees of objections,
1-16     violations of sound accounting practices or law and regulation
1-17     requirements, or of recommendations concerning the audit reports
1-18     that the commissioner wants to make. If the audit report reflects
1-19     that penal laws have been violated, the commissioner shall notify
1-20     the appropriate county or district attorney and the attorney
1-21     general.  The commissioner shall have access to all vouchers,
1-22     receipts, district fiscal and financial records, and other school
1-23     records as the commissioner considers necessary and appropriate for
 2-1     the review, analysis, and passing on audit reports.
 2-2           SECTION 3.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1999.
 2-3           SECTION 4.  The importance of this legislation and the
 2-4     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
 2-5     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
 2-6     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
 2-7     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
 2-8     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
 2-9     passage, and it is so enacted.