LEGISLATIVE BUDGET BOARD
                                   Austin, Texas
         
                                   FISCAL NOTE
                               75th Regular Session
         
                                  March 24, 1997
         
         
      TO: Honorable Ron E. Lewis, Chair            IN RE:  House Bill No. 1564, Committee Report 1st House, Substituted
          Committee on County Affairs                              By: Eiland
          House
          Austin, Texas
         
         
         
         
         FROM:  John Keel, Director    
         
In response to your request for a Fiscal Note on HB1564 ( Relating 
to requiring certain special districts to select a depository 
and follow a competitive bidding process.) this office has detemined 
the following:
         
         Biennial Net Impact to General Revenue Funds by HB1564-Committee Report 1st House, Substituted
         
No fiscal implication to the State is anticipated.
         

         
 
          
Requiring special districts to select a depository according 
to the procedures currently required for municipalities or counties 
could result in an initial increase in administrative costs 
to such subdivisions which currently are not following such 
procedures.  However, these costs are not anticipated to be 
significant.

Requiring special districts to follow competitive 
bidding procedures currently applicable to municipalities and 
counties should not result in significant fiscal implications 
to political subdivisions in most cases, since such subdivisions 
generally follow competitive bidding procedures similar to those 
applicable to municipalities and counties. 

Special districts 
which currently are exempted from competitive bidding procedures 
in certain instances could, however, experience significant 
negative fiscal implications as a result of this bill.  For 
example, the Lower Colorado River Authority expects that this 
bill would require the authority to follow competitive bidding 
procedures for the procurement of items required for the authority's 
power generating facilities, which could increase costs to the 
authority.  Because the authority occasionally must replace 
certain items in a very short period of time to maintain continuous 
facility operations, the time required by the competitive bidding 
process could necessitate the need for the authority to purchase 
supplemental electricity from other entities.  The authority 
anticipates that electricity purchased from other entities would 
cost substantially more than it costs the authority to produce 
its own electricity.
          
   Source:            Agencies:   304   Comptroller of Public Accounts
                                         
                      LBB Staff:   JK ,TL