TO:	Honorable Charles Perry, Chair, Senate Committee on Disaster Preparedness & Flooding, Select
FROM:	Jerry McGinty, Director, Legislative Budget Board
IN RE:	SB1 by Perry (relating to campground and youth camp safety.), Committee Report 1st House, Substituted

Among other provisions, the bill would require the Department of State Health Services (DSHS) to post, maintain, and update on its website a list displaying each youth camp holding an active license and would prohibit DSHS from issuing or renewing a youth camp license for a youth camp that operates one or more cabins located in a floodplain, as defined by the bill, with an exception for camps with cabins only located in a floodplain as a result of the cabin's proximity to a still body of water that is not connected to a watercourse or is dammed. 

The bill would provide for additional health and safety standards applicable to youth camps by rule of the executive commissioner of the Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC), including the development of an emergency plan that must meet minimum standards prescribed by department rule. The bill would require DSHS to store emergency plans in a digital database accessible to the Texas Division of Emergency Management (TDEM). A youth camp operator would not be required to submit an emergency plan to DSHS until April 1, 2026.

The bill would also require youth camp operators to provide and maintain redundant internet connections and would establish floodplain safety requirements and fire protection standards for campground operators, as defined by the bill. The bill would authorize a governmental entity to adopt a policy, rule, ordinance, or order to regulate environmental health and sanitation, electrical distribution system safety, liquefied petroleum gas storage and dispensing safety, or fire protection only if the policy, rule, ordinance, or order does not impose fire protection standards more stringent than those outlined by the bill.

This analysis assumes that DSHS would need additional staff to promulgate rules relating to the resident youth camp emergency plans and to review and approve those plans, but the number of additional staff and the specific class titles needed for those functions are unknown. According to DSHS, the agency would use existing technology to house and share emergency plans but would need additional funding for configuration, testing, deployment, storage, and software licensing costs. DSHS estimates technology costs of $264,963 in fiscal year 2026 and $11,916 each fiscal year thereafter.

It is assumed that costs to HHSC would be insignificant.

Local Government Impact

No significant fiscal implication to units of local government is anticipated.