LEGISLATIVE BUDGET BOARD
Austin, Texas
FISCAL NOTE
75th Regular Session
March 31, 1997
TO: Honorable Toby Goodman, Chair IN RE: House Bill No. 2155
Committee on Juvenile Justice and Family Issues By: Solis
House
Austin, Texas
FROM: John Keel, Director
In response to your request for a Fiscal Note on HB2155 ( Relating
to the enforcement of possession orders by the Title IV-D agency.)
this office has detemined the following:
Biennial Net Impact to General Revenue Funds by HB2155-As Introduced
The bill would make no appropriation but could provide the legal
basis for an appropriation of funds to implement the provisions
of the bill.
This bill would amend Section 231.002(a), Family
Code to provide that the state's Title IV-D agency, the Office
of the Attorney General, may initiate legal actions to enforce
possession orders for children which were issued under Chapter
153 of the Family Code.
Similar annual fiscal implications Section 231.002(a) of the
Family Code is permissive, as it states that the Title IV-D
agency "may" take various actions. This bill would amend this
section to add a new permissive directive to the Office of the
Attorney General, allowing it to initiate legal actions to enforce
possession orders issued under Chapter 153, Family Code. Chapter
231 of the Family Code is entitled Title IV-D Services, and
Section 231.002 enumerates the "powers and duties" of "the Title
IV-D agency" (the Office of the Attorney General). As a consequence,
this fiscal note assumes that the bill would only apply to instances
in which the Attorney General initiates legal actions to enforce
possession orders in Title IV-D cases.
The Attorney General
has stated that enforcement of possession orders would not qualify
as a Title IV-D function under 42 United States Code, Section
651, and that therefore this function would not be eligible
for 66 percent federal matching funds that pay for IV-D functions.
The Attorney General's Child Support Division would be required
to allocate all costs currently associated with program support
between IV-D and non IV-D functions, according to the federal
Office of Management and Budget Circular A-87, "Cost Principles
for State, Local and Indian Tribal Governments."
The Office
of the Attorney General could incur additional costs as a result
of this bill, although the bill does not require that the Attorney
General initiate legal actions to enforce possession orders.
This fiscal note assumes that the Attorney General could initiate
such actions in IV-D cases, which could require additional FTEs,
including attorneys, program administrators and administrative
technicians, plus capital equipment costs, software and travel
costs. The Office of the Attorney General states that enhancements
would also need to be made to the Texas Child Support Enforcement
System (TXCSES) to incorporate the new initiative, possession
services, which is specified in this bill.
The Attorney General
has approximately 187,000 possession services cases on its caseload,
of which 105,000 or 56 percent are Title IV-D cases. If the
Attorney General were to initiate legal actions to enforce possession
orders issued under Chapter 153 of the Family Code, as this
bill would authorize, the cost of implementing the bill would
be in the range of $876,917 to $1,753,834 in fiscal year 1997;
$7,821,775 to $15,643,549 in fiscal year 1998; and $9,553,509
to $19,107,017 in fiscal year 1999. Of these amounts, federal
funding would be in the range of zero percent in fiscal 1997
to 5.4 percent in fiscal 1999. The majority of funding to implement
this bill would be from general revenue funds, including Child
Support Retained Collection Account funds.
No significant fiscal implication to units of local government
is anticipated.
Source: Agencies: 302 Office of the Attorney General
LBB Staff: JK ,CB ,JC