LEGISLATIVE BUDGET BOARD
                          Austin, Texas

                           FISCAL NOTE
                       74th Regular Session

                           May 6, 1995



 TO:     Honorable Robert M. Saunders, Chair    IN RE: Committee Substitute
         Committee on Land and Resource                       forHouse Bill
         Management                             No. 1357
         House of Representatives                       By: Alexander
         Austin, Texas








FROM: John Keel, Director

In response to your request for a Fiscal Note on House Bill No.
1357 (Relating to the assessment of damages, costs, and
attorney's fees in an eminent domain proceeding.) this office has
determined the following:

The bill would make no appropriation but could provide the legal
basis for an appropriation of funds to implement the provisions
of the bill.

The bill provides that if an entire tract or parcel of real
property is condemned, the damage to the property owner is the
greater of the local market value at the time of the special
Commissioner's hearing or seventy-percent of the appraised value
of the property as determined under the laws governing appraisal
methods and procedures.  The bill also provides that the
condemnor must pay the property owner's attorney's fees if the
Commissioners award greater damages than the condemnor offered to
pay before the proceedings began.

The probable fiscal implication of implementing the provisions of
the bill during each of the first  five years following passage
is estimated as follows:    




            Fiscal  Probable Cost Out 
             Year   of  State Highway 
                         Fund 006     
                                      
          1996              $5,000,000
          1997               5,000,000
                                      
          1998               5,000,000
                                      
          1999               5,000,000
          2000               5,000,000
                                      
                                      
                                      
       Similar annual fiscal implications would continue as long as the 
provisions of the bill are in effect.

The fiscal implication to  units of local government cannot be
determined.


Source:   Office of the Attorney General, Department of
Transportation
          LBB Staff: JK, ML, DF