1-1     By:  Barrientos                                       S.B. No. 1354
 1-2           (In the Senate - Filed March 11, 1999; March 15, 1999, read
 1-3     first time and referred to Committee on Finance; April 19, 1999,
 1-4     reported favorably by the following vote:  Yeas 11, Nays 0;
 1-5     April 19, 1999, sent to printer.)
 1-6                            A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-7                                   AN ACT
 1-8     relating to longevity pay for employees of the Texas School for the
 1-9     Blind and Visually Impaired and the Texas School for the Deaf.
1-10           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-11           SECTION 1.  Section 659.043, Government Code, is amended to
1-12     read as follows:
1-13           Sec. 659.043.  ENTITLEMENT.  (a)  A state employee is
1-14     entitled to longevity pay to be included in the employee's monthly
1-15     compensation if the employee:
1-16                 (1)  is a full-time state employee on the first workday
1-17     of the month;
1-18                 (2)  is not on leave without pay on the first workday
1-19     of the month; and
1-20                 (3)  has accrued at least five years of lifetime
1-21     service credit not later than the last day of the preceding month.
1-22           (b)  Notwithstanding Subsection (a), employees of the Texas
1-23     School for the Blind and Visually Impaired and the Texas School for
1-24     the Deaf are entitled to longevity pay for any month in which they
1-25     are on paid status for any portion of that month.
1-26           SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1999.
1-27           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
1-28     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
1-29     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
1-30     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
1-31     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.
1-32                                  * * * * *