BILL ANALYSIS

C.S.H.B. 737

By: Cortez

Transportation

Committee Report (Substituted)

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

It has been noted that there are no specialty license plates designated for public educators in Texas. In response, there have been calls to honor and recognize public educators for their years of service in educating generations of Texans. C.S.H.B. 737 provides for the issuance of specialty license plates for current and retired classroom teachers based on their years of public school teaching experience.                         

CRIMINAL JUSTICE IMPACT

It is the committee's opinion that this bill does not expressly create a criminal offense, increase the punishment for an existing criminal offense or category of offenses, or change the eligibility of a person for community supervision, parole, or mandatory supervision.

RULEMAKING AUTHORITY

It is the committee's opinion that this bill does not expressly grant any additional rulemaking authority to a state officer, department, agency, or institution.

ANALYSIS

C.S.H.B. 737 amends the Transportation Code to require the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles (TxDMV) to issue specialty license plates for classroom teachers with at least 15 years of service teaching public school students and for retired classroom teachers, defined by the bill as a person who was formerly employed as a classroom teacher and is a retiree of the Teacher Retirement System of Texas, with at least 20 years of service teaching public school students. The bill requires the license plates to include the words "Texas Teacher" or "Retired Texas Teacher," as applicable, and to depict a Texas public education logo. The bill requires TxDMV to design the license plates in consultation with the Texas Education Agency, sets fees for the issuance of the license plates, and requires a person issued either license plate to be issued one set of the license plates without payment of the applicable vehicle registration fee.

EFFECTIVE DATE

September 1, 2019.

COMPARISON OF ORIGINAL AND SUBSTITUTE

While C.S.H.B. 737 may differ from the original in minor or nonsubstantive ways, the following summarizes the substantial differences between the introduced and committee substitute versions of the bill.

The substitute defines "retired classroom teacher."