LEGISLATIVE BUDGET BOARD
                                   Austin, Texas
         
                                   FISCAL NOTE
                               75th Regular Session
         
                                  April 2, 1997
         
         
      TO: Honorable Senfronia Thompson, Chair            IN RE:  House Bill No. 2270
          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-As Introduced
         
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