Honorable Bryan Hughes, Chair, Senate Committee on Jurisprudence
FROM:
Jerry McGinty, Director, Legislative Budget Board
IN RE:
HB841 by Ordaz (Relating to certain judicial statistics and related information gathered by the Texas Judicial Council.), As Engrossed
Estimated Two-year Net Impact to General Revenue Related Funds for HB841, As Engrossed : a negative impact of ($6,000,000) through the biennium ending August 31, 2025.
The bill would make no appropriation but could provide the legal basis for an appropriation of funds to implement the provisions of the bill.
General Revenue-Related Funds, Five- Year Impact:
Fiscal Year
Probable Net Positive/(Negative) Impact to General Revenue Related Funds
2024
($4,000,000)
2025
($2,000,000)
2026
($2,000,000)
2027
($2,000,000)
2028
($2,000,000)
All Funds, Five-Year Impact:
Fiscal Year
Probable Savings/(Cost) from General Revenue Fund 1
2024
($4,000,000)
2025
($2,000,000)
2026
($2,000,000)
2027
($2,000,000)
2028
($2,000,000)
Fiscal Analysis
The bill would require the Office of Court Administration (OCA) to gather case-level data on the amount and character of the business transacted by the courts as part of its data collection duties. The bill would require the Texas Judicial Council to adopt rules necessary to implement the provisions of the bill.
The bill would take effect September 1, 2023.
Methodology
Costs reflected in the table above are based on the analysis provided by OCA.
This analysis assumes OCA would need to replace its Court Activity Reporting Database, a legacy information technology system that currently only allows for aggregate data collection, to capture the data required by the bill. To address cybersecurity vulnerabilities and to allow courts to report data in near-real time, the new system would be a vendor-hosted, cloud-based system. OCA estimates the cost for the new system to be $6,000,000 in General Revenue in the 2024-25 biennium including $4,000,000 in fiscal year 2024 and $2,000,000 in fiscal year 2025. OCA also estimates that $2,000,000 each subsequent year would be necessary for maintaining the system.
Technology
OCA anticipates a cost of $4,000,000 in fiscal year 2024 and $2,000,000 in fiscal year 2025 to acquire the necessary information resource technologies to collect, store, and process case-level data as required by the bill. This includes the vendor-hosted, cloud-based system to allow each court to report data, and business intelligence platforms to manipulate the data to answer policy questions by the Judicial Council and the Legislature.
Local Government Impact
While there may be a cost to local governments to provide the data required due to modification of court case management systems, OCA anticipates that most court clerks' case management contracts with vendors include provisions that do not require payment when there are state-mandated reporting changes. The cost will vary by jurisdiction due to these differences by county. Therefore, no significant fiscal impact to local government is anticipated.