1-1     By:  Ellis                                            S.B. No. 1229
 1-2           (In the Senate - Filed March 11, 1999; March 11, 1999, read
 1-3     first time and referred to Committee on Finance; April 27, 1999,
 1-4     reported favorably by the following vote:  Yeas 9, Nays 0;
 1-5     April 27, 1999, sent to printer.)
 1-6                            A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-7                                   AN ACT
 1-8     relating to the compensation of presiding judges of administrative
 1-9     judicial regions.
1-10           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-11           SECTION 1.  Subsections (b) and (c), Section 74.051,
1-12     Government Code, are amended to read as follows:
1-13           (b)  Except as provided by Subsection (c), a presiding judge
1-14     shall receive a salary not to exceed $23,000 [$18,000] a year.  The
1-15     Texas Judicial Council shall set the salary biennially and, in
1-16     arriving at the amount of the salary, shall consider whether the
1-17     presiding judge is active in administrative duties, performs part
1-18     time, or is a retired judge.  The salary set by the Texas Judicial
1-19     Council shall be apportioned to each county in the region according
1-20     to the population of the counties comprising the region and shall
1-21     be paid through the county budget process.
1-22           (c)  A presiding judge who is a retired or former district
1-23     judge or a retired appellate judge and who presides over an
1-24     administrative region with 30 or more district courts, statutory
1-25     county courts, and retired and former judges named on the list
1-26     maintained under Section 74.055 for the administrative region is
1-27     entitled to an annual salary for each fiscal year as follows:
1-28                Number of Courts and Judges          Salary
1-29                30 to 49                  $25,000 [$20,000]
1-30                50 to 69                  $30,000 [$25,000]
1-31                70 to 89                  $35,000 [$30,000]
1-32                90 or more                $40,000 [$35,000]
1-33           SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1999.
1-34           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
1-35     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
1-36     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
1-37     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
1-38     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.
1-39                                  * * * * *