By: Smithee (Senate Sponsor - Sparks) H.B. No. 4449

(In the Senate - Received from the House May 19, 2025; May 19, 2025, read first time and referred to Committee on State Affairs; May 26, 2025, reported favorably by the following vote: Yeas 9, Nays 1; May 26, 2025, sent to printer.) Click here to see the committee vote

A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

AN ACT

relating to the sale of alcoholic beverages in areas annexed by certain municipalities.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

SECTION 1. Section 251.72, Alcoholic Beverage Code, is amended to read as follows:

Sec. 251.72. CHANGE OF STATUS. Except as provided in Sections 251.725, 251.726, 251.727, 251.728, 251.73, and 251.80, an authorized voting unit that has exercised or may exercise the right of local option retains the status adopted, whether absolute prohibition or legalization of the sale of alcoholic beverages of one or more of the various types and alcoholic contents on which an issue may be submitted under the terms of Section 501.035, Election Code, until that status is changed by a subsequent local option election in the same authorized voting unit.

SECTION 2. Subchapter D, Chapter 251, Alcoholic Beverage Code, is amended by adding Section 251.728 to read as follows:

Sec. 251.728. CHANGE OF STATUS FOR TERRITORY ANNEXED OR OWNED BY MUNICIPALITIES IN CERTAIN COUNTIES. (a) This section applies only to a municipality that:

(1) is wholly located in a county containing a portion of U.S. Highways 60 and 87; and

(2) has a population of more than 12,000.

(b) Notwithstanding any other law, an area annexed to a municipality to which this section applies assumes the wet or dry status of that municipality.

SECTION 3. The change in law made by this Act applies to an area annexed by a municipality before, on, or after the effective date of this Act.

SECTION 4. This Act takes effect September 1, 2025.

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