LEGISLATIVE BUDGET BOARD Austin, Texas FISCAL NOTE 75th Regular Session April 7, 1997 TO: Honorable Senfronia Thompson, Chair IN RE: House Bill No. 2270, Committee Report 1st House, as amended Committee on Judicial Affairs By: Thompson House Austin, Texas FROM: John Keel, Director In response to your request for a Fiscal Note on HB2270 ( Relating to funds tendered into the registry of the court.) this office has detemined the following: Biennial Net Impact to General Revenue Funds by HB2270-Committee Report 1st House, as amended No fiscal implication to the State is anticipated. This bill would require county and district clerks to transfer certain registry funds into interest-bearing accounts and to allocate 10 percent of interest earnings on such accounts to a county's general fund to compensate for accounting and administrative expenses, with the remaining 90 percent of the interest being credited to a special or separate account designated for the beneficiary of the account. Because many of the transactions subject to these provisions involve relatively low amounts of money, the 10 percent portion of earned allocated to a county could, in some cases, fail to cover the cost of required administration. Denton County estimates that this bill could consequently have a negative fiscal impact of $25,000 per year. Although counties currently do not earn interest on funds in the registry of the court, some counties do earn earnings credits with the bank in which such funds are deposited. These credits are earned at approximately the same interest rates as regular accounts. While not considered cash, such earnings credits can be used to purchase bank services such as checks and armored car services at costs equal to those the bank would charge for a customer paying with cash. The Dallas County Treasurer reports using $1.3 million in earnings credits in fiscal year 1996. The County predicts that it would receive only 10 percent of such earnings as a result of this bill's passage, resulting in a net annual loss in earnings credits of approximately $1.2 million. Travis County reports that this bill would result in no fiscal impact to the county. Source: Agencies: 304 Comptroller of Public Accounts LBB Staff: JK ,PE ,TL