LEGISLATIVE BUDGET BOARD
Austin, Texas
FISCAL NOTE
75th Regular Session
May 28, 1997
TO: Honorable James E. "Pete" Laney IN RE: House Bill No. 2295, As Passed 2nd House
Speaker of the House Oakley
House of Representatives
Austin, Texas
FROM: John Keel, Director
In response to your request for a Fiscal Note on HB2295 ( Relating
to excavation operations that may damage underground facilities;
providing civil and criminal penalties.) this office has detemined
the following:
Biennial Net Impact to General Revenue Funds by HB2295-As Passed 2nd House
No significant fiscal implication to the State is anticipated.
Fiscal Analysis
The bill would set up a process for identifying
underground facilities and notifying owners of underground facilities
of proposed excavations. Under the bill, a non-profit corporation
is created whose board members are owners of various specified
types of underground facilities. The types of underground facilities
include buried electric, telecommunications, gas, steam, or
petroleum lines. The bill would set up regional notification
centers. The non-profit corporation would operate a statewide
1-800 number and route calls to the appropriate regional notification
center. Owners of the specified types of underground facilities
would be required to supply the regional notification center
a map of the facilities. In general, the bill would require
anyone excavating with a powered excavation device to contact
the regional notification center in advance of excavation.
The bill would provide that each time a notification center
receives a call from an excavator, the notification center would
pay the non-profit corporation $0.01, with the charge being
waived if the corporation receives $500,000 in one year.
The notification centers would charge $1.25 to each operator
of an underground facility for a call made to the center which
affects that operator. In addition, a $50 annual fee would
be paid by the operators to the corporation. The charges and
annual fee would fund the non-profit corporation and the notification
centers.
Methodology
According to the Railroad Commission,
the federal pipeline safety grant program awards grants based
on performance points associated with pipeline safety programs.
The Railroad Commission estimates that it may receive added
performance points for the state having legislation regarding
pipeline damage prevention and therefore may receive an additional
$200,000 each year from the federal government.
Local governments
with municipally owned utilities would be impacted by the fees
assessed in the bill. According to the Public Utility Commission,
there are 74 municipally owned electric utilities in the state.
The two largest are in San Antonio and Austin which together
represent 72.6 percent of total revenues for the 74 municipally
owned electric utilities. According to the Railroad Commission,
there are 85 municipally owned gas utilities in the state with
the two largest being San Antonio and Corpus Christi which together
represent 85.5 percent of the total sales. The cities of San
Antonio, Austin, Corpus Christi, Dallas, Houston, and Denton
were contacted for input on the bill. Of those who responded,
costs were identified in a range from minimal up to $1 million
(The City of Houston estimated it would cost $1 million as the
city was concerned that the bill would include water utilities.
The current bill would treat water utilities as voluntary participants.)
Source: Agencies: 307 Secretary of State
405 Department of Public Safety
473 Public Utility Commission of Texas
455 Railroad Commission
302 Office of the Attorney General
LBB Staff: JK ,JD ,CB ,JH