LEGISLATIVE BUDGET BOARD
                                   Austin, Texas
         
                                   FISCAL NOTE
                               75th Regular Session
         
                                  April 16, 1997
         
         
      TO: Honorable Toby Goodman, Chair            IN RE:  House Bill No. 2843
          Committee on Juvenile Justice and Family Issues                              By: Hirschi
          House
          Austin, Texas
         
         
         
         
         FROM:  John Keel, Director    
         
In response to your request for a Fiscal Note on HB2843 ( Relating 
to the enforcement and collection of child support; providing 
a penalty.) this office has detemined the following:
         
         Biennial Net Impact to General Revenue Funds by HB2843-As Introduced
         
No significant fiscal implication to the State is anticipated.
         

         
 
The bill would allow amend various sections of the Family Code 
relating to collections of child support.

The bill would 
allow the clerk of the domestic relations court to collect a 
fee at the time a case is filed and remit it to the domestic 
relations office.   The bill would require the calculation of 
interest on unpaid child support obligations to begin as of 
the date the judgment is signed by the judge and would allow 
counties to transfer child support payments electronically. 
 The bill would allow information to be forwarded to the Texas 
Crime Information Center and the National Crime Information 
Center.  The bill would change the priority in which child support 
payments are applied, reversing the priority between interest 
and principle for the application of child support payments.

The 
provisions relating to the domestic relations office and the 
information which employers must furnish with their remittance 
of support payments withheld from an obligor's paycheck would 
take effect on January 1, 1998.  The remainder of the bill would 
take effect September 1, 1997.

The Office of the Attorney 
General estimates that changing the priority in which child 
support payments are applied would require modification to the 
financial component of the new child support computer system 
(TXCSES).  However, it is assumed that the cost could be absorbed 
within current funding.
          
No significant fiscal implication to units of local government 
is anticipated.
          
   Source:            Agencies:   501   Department of Health
                                         405   Department of Public Safety
                                         696   Department of Criminal Justice
                                         304   Comptroller of Public Accounts
                                         324   Department of Human Services
                                         302   Office of the Attorney General
                                         
                      LBB Staff:   JK ,CB ,JC