By:  Ellis                                            S.B. No. 1229
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
                                       AN ACT
 1-1     relating to the compensation of presiding judges of administrative
 1-2     judicial regions.
 1-3           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-4           SECTION 1.  Subsections (b) and (c), Section 74.051,
 1-5     Government Code, are amended to read as follows:
 1-6           (b)  Except as provided by Subsection (c), a presiding judge
 1-7     shall receive a salary not to exceed $23,000 [$18,000] a year.  The
 1-8     Texas Judicial Council shall set the salary biennially and, in
 1-9     arriving at the amount of the salary, shall consider whether the
1-10     presiding judge is active in administrative duties, performs part
1-11     time, or is a retired judge.  The salary set by the Texas Judicial
1-12     Council shall be apportioned to each county in the region according
1-13     to the population of the counties comprising the region and shall
1-14     be paid through the county budget process.
1-15           (c)  A presiding judge who is a retired or former district
1-16     judge or a retired appellate judge and who presides over an
1-17     administrative region with 30 or more district courts, statutory
1-18     county courts, and retired and former judges named on the list
1-19     maintained under Section 74.055 for the administrative region is
1-20     entitled to an annual salary for each fiscal year as follows:
1-21                Number of Courts and Judges          Salary
1-22                30 to 49                  $25,000 [$20,000]
1-23                50 to 69                  $30,000 [$25,000]
1-24                70 to 89                  $35,000 [$30,000]
 2-1                90 or more                $40,000 [$35,000]
 2-2           SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1999.
 2-3           SECTION 3.  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.