HBA-RBT H.B. 3467 76(R)    BILL ANALYSIS


Office of House Bill AnalysisH.B. 3467
By: Pickett
Ways & Means
4/1/1999
Introduced



BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE 

According to Texas Department of Transportation officials, one
legally-loaded 80,000-pound truck causes road damage equivalent to 9,600
cars.  Overweight trucks cause even greater damage.  The overweight truck
problem is particularly acute on highways, bridges and city streets in
communities on the Texas-Mexico border, which handle 85 percent of all
U.S.-Mexico truck traffic. 

The Department of Public Safety and local police officers in certain cities
are responsible for enforcing truck weight limitations and issuing
citations to operators of overweight vehicles.  Under current law, half of
the proceeds from overweight vehicle fines imposed and collected by county
courts at law, justices of the peace, and municipal courts must be remitted
to the state comptroller of public accounts and deposited in the general
revenue fund.  As a result, funds from overweight vehicle fines which might
otherwise be used by local governments in economically disadvantaged border
communities to repair road and bridge damage are unavailable to them. 

H.B. 3467 requires the proceeds from overweight vehicle fines for offenses
that occur within 20 miles of an international border to be deposited with
local governments.   

RULEMAKING AUTHORITY

It is the opinion of the Office of House Bill Analysis that this bill does
not expressly delegate any additional rulemaking authority to a state
officer, department, agency, or institution. 

SECTION BY SECTION ANALYSIS

SECTION 1.  Amends Section 621.506(g), Transportation Code, to require a
fine assessed for an offense involving a vehicle having a gross weight that
is more than 5,000 pounds heavier than the vehicle's allowable gross weight
that occurs within 20 miles of an international border to deposit the fine
in the municipal treasury if the fine was imposed by a municipal court or
to the county treasury if the fine was imposed by a justice court. 

SECTION 2.  Makes application of this Act prospective, to a fine collected
on or after the effective date, regardless of the date of the offense. 

SECTION 3.  Effective date: September 1, 1999.

SECTION 4.  Emergency clause.