BILL ANALYSIS
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Senate Research Center |
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AUTHOR'S / SPONSOR'S STATEMENT OF INTENT
Interested parties describe the circumstances under which certain justices or judges in Texas are prohibited from having a significant interest in a business entity that owns, manages, or operates certain community residential facilities or correctional or rehabilitation facilities. The parties note that the statutes establish what constitutes a significant interest for purposes of the prohibition and that having a direct investment of a certain specified amount constitutes such an interest, along with owning any voting stock or share in the business entity. The parties contend that it is a conflict for a justice or judge to have any direct investment at all in these facilities and assert that the threshold value for what constitutes such a direct investment should be removed. This bill seeks to impose that prohibition.
H.B. 257 amends current law relating to a judge's or justice's significant interest in a business entity that owns, manages, or operates a private correctional or rehabilitation facility.
RULEMAKING AUTHORITY
SECTION BY SECTION ANALYSIS
SECTION 1. Amends Section 21.010(b), Government Code, as follows:
(b) Provides that a justice or judge is considered to have a significant interest in a business entity described by Subsection (a) (prohibiting a justice or judge, as applicable, of the supreme court, the court of criminal appeals, a court of appeals, a district court, a county court, a county court at law, or a statutory probate court from having a significant interest in a certain business entity set forth) for purposes of this section if:
(1) the justice or judge owns any voting stock or share or has a direct investment in the business entity, rather than the justice or judge owns any voting stock or share or has a direct investment in the business entity that represents the lesser of at least 10 percent or $15,000 of the fair market value of the business entity; or
(2) Makes no change to this subdivision.
SECTION 2. Effective date: January 1, 2017.