By: Longoria (Senate Sponsor - Hinojosa) H.B. No. 541
(In the Senate - Received from the House May 1, 2023;
May 1, 2023, read first time and referred to Committee on Criminal
Justice; May 11, 2023, reported favorably by the following vote:
Yeas 6, Nays 0; May 11, 2023, sent to printer.)
Click here to see the committee vote
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to donations to certain local charities or veterans county
service offices ordered to be paid as a condition of community
supervision.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Article 42A.304(f), Code of Criminal Procedure,
is amended to read as follows:
(f) Instead of requiring the defendant to work a specified
number of hours at one or more community service projects under
Subsection (a), the judge may order a defendant to make a specified
donation to:
(1) a nonprofit food bank or food pantry in the
community in which the defendant resides;
(2) a charitable organization engaged primarily in
performing charitable functions [for veterans] in the community in
which the defendant resides for defendants under community
supervision or for veterans;
(3) a veterans county service office created under
Subchapter B, Chapter 434, Government Code, and operating in the
county in which the defendant resides; or
(4) [(3)] in a county with a population of less than
50,000, another nonprofit organization that:
(A) is exempt from taxation under Section 501(a)
of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 because it is listed in Section
501(c)(3) of that code; and
(B) provides services or assistance to needy
individuals and families in the community in which the defendant
resides.
SECTION 2. Section 434.032(c), Government Code, is amended
to read as follows:
(c) The commissioners court of a county that maintains an
office:
(1) may not consider donations made [a juror's
donation] to the office [of the juror's daily reimbursement] under
Article 42A.304(f), Code of Criminal Procedure, or Section 61.003
for purposes of determining the county's budget for the office; and
(2) may use donations described by Subdivision (1)
only to supplement, rather than supplant, amounts budgeted by the
county for the office.
SECTION 3. This Act takes effect September 1, 2023.
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