Amend SB 1839 (house committee printing) in SECTION 5.09 of the bill as follows: (1) In added Subsection (a), Section 9, Article 21.49-3d, Insurance Code, strike "maintenance tax surcharge" and substitute "assessment" (page 17, line 6). (2) Strike added Section 10, Article 21.49-3d, Insurance Code, and substitute the following: Sec. 10. ASSESSMENT. (a) The commissioner shall impose an assessment against: (1) each insurer; and (2) the association. (b) The assessment shall be set in an amount sufficient to pay all debt service on the bonds. The assessment is set by the commissioner and shall be collected as the commissioner specifies by rule. (c) It shall be the duty of each insurer to pay the amount of an assessment under Subsection (b) of this section to the association not later than the 30th day after the association gives notice of the assessment. (d) Assessments may be collected on behalf of the association by the commissioner through suits brought for that purpose. Venue for those suits is in Travis County. Either party to the action may appeal to the appellate court having jurisdiction over the cause, the appeal shall be at once returnable to the appellate court having jurisdiction over the cause, and the action so appealed shall have precedence in the appellate court over all causes of a different character pending before the court. The commissioner is not required to give an appeal bond in any cause arising under this subsection. (e) An insurer designated as an impaired insurer by the commissioner is exempt from assessment from and after the date of the designation and until the commissioner determines that the insurer is no longer an impaired insurer. (f) The association and each insurer may pass through the assessment imposed under this section to each of its policyholders. (g) As a condition of engaging in the business of insurance in this state, an insurer agrees that if the company leaves the market for liability insurance in this state the insurer remains obligated to pay, until the bonds are retired, the insurer's share of the assessment imposed under this section in an amount proportionate to that insurer's share of the market for liability insurance in this state as of the last complete reporting period before the date on which the insurer ceases to engage in that insurance business in this state. The proportion of the assessment imposed on the insurer shall be based on the insurer's gross premiums for liability insurance for the insurer's last reporting period. However, an insurer is not required to pay the proportionate amount in any year in which the amount of the assessment imposed under this section on insurers continuing to write liability insurance in this state is sufficient to service the bond obligation. (h) One hundred percent of any assessment paid by an insurer under this section shall be allowed to that insurer as a credit against its premium tax under this code. The tax credit referred to in this section shall be allowed at a rate of 10 percent per year for 10 successive years following the date of assessment and, at the option of the insurer, may be taken over an additional number of years. The balance of any tax credit not claimed in a particular year may be reflected in the books and records of the insurer as an admitted asset of the insurer for all purposes, including exhibition in annual statements under Article 6.12 of this code. (i) Available credit against premium tax allowed under Subsection (h) of this section may be transferred or assigned among or between insurers if: (1) a merger, acquisition, or total assumption of reinsurance among or between the insurers occurs; or (2) the commissioner by order approves the transfer or assignment.