LEGISLATIVE BUDGET BOARD
                          Austin, Texas

                           FISCAL NOTE
                       74th Regular Session

                          April 12, 1995



 TO:     Honorable Clyde Alexander, Chair       IN RE:  House Bill No. 1954
         Committee on Transportation                    By: Carter
         House of Representatives
         Austin, Texas







FROM: John Keel, Director

In response to your request for a Fiscal Note on House Bill No.
1954 (Relating to the creation of an emergency telephone call box
system for highway users in this state.) 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 would require the Department of Transportation to
establish a system of telephone emergency call boxes along
highways in the state that are numbered U.S. highways, part of a
national system of interstate and defense highways, or numbered
state highways. The bill would require that, when fully
implemented, the distance between two call boxes would be no more
than two miles. The Department would be required to establish the
program by January 1, 1996.

The bill would require a $1 dollar registration fee deposited to
the credit of a separate account in the State Highway Fund and
could only be used for the implementation or administration of
the emergency call box program.

The bill stipulates that money deposited in the State Highway
Fund for purposes established by the bill would be exempt from
Sections 403.094 and 403.095, Government Code.

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   Probable Revenue   Probable Revenue  
             Year   of  State Highway   Gain to   State     Gain to  Local   
                         Fund 006       Highway Fund 006      Government     
                                                                             
                                                                             
          1996             $11,667,579        $11,667,579          $3,485,121
          1997              11,871,629         11,871,629           3,546,071
                                                                             
          1998              12,071,444         12,071,444           3,605,756
                                                                             
          1999              12,469,149         12,469,149           3,724,551
          2000              12,649,714         12,649,714           3,778,486
                                                                             
                                                                             
                                                                             
            Fiscal     Change in    
             Year   Number of State 
                     Employees from 
                        FY 1995     
                                    
          1996                   4.0
          1997                   4.0
                                    
          1998                   4.0
                                    
          1999                   4.0
          2000                   4.0
                                    
                                    
                                    



Similar annual fiscal implications would continue as long as the
provisions of the bill are in effect.


Source:   Comptroller of Public Accounts, Department of
Transportation
          LBB Staff: JK, ML, DF