BILL ANALYSIS H.B. 840 By: Denny (Brown) State Affairs 4-24-95 Senate Committee Report (Amended) BACKGROUND Section 144, Article 6701d, V.T.C.S., regulates the amount that municipalities with a population under 5,000 may retain from traffic fines. Municipalities may retain revenue from traffic fines equal to 30 percent of total city revenue from the prior year. Currently, no enforcement mechanism for noncompliance exists. PURPOSE As proposed, H.B. 840 provides a method for enforcing the limit of the amount of funds that certain municipalities may retain from amounts collected for traffic violations. RULEMAKING AUTHORITY It is the committee's opinion that this bill does not grant any additional rulemaking authority to a state officer, institution, or agency. SECTION BY SECTION ANALYSIS SECTION 1. Amends Section 144, Article 6701d, V.T.C.S., by adding Subsections (f) and (g), as follows: (f) Requires a municipality retaining amounts of 20 percent or more under Subsection (b) to provide to the state comptroller a copy of its financial statement and a report that includes the total amount collected for that fiscal year within a specified period. (g) Requires the comptoller to enforce the limitation on the amount a municipality may retain under Subsection (b). SECTION 2. Amends Section 144, Article 6701d, V.T.C.S., by adding Subsection (h), to require a city to pay for the costs incurred by the state comptroller to conduct the audit if the comptroller conducts an audit pursuant to Subsection (g) and it is determined that the city is retaining more than 20 percent of the amounts under Subsection (b) and has not complied with Subsection (f). SECTION 3. Emergency clause. Effective date: 90 days after adjournment.