LEGISLATIVE BUDGET BOARD
                                   Austin, Texas
         
                                   FISCAL NOTE
                               75th Regular Session
         
                                  March 31, 1997
         
         
      TO: Honorable Bob Hunter, Chair            IN RE:  House Bill No. 2848
          Committee on State, Federal & International Relations                              By: Berlanga
          House
          Austin, Texas
         
         
         
         
         FROM:  John Keel, Director    
         
In response to your request for a Fiscal Note on HB2848 ( Relating 
to the designation of the Corpus Christi Museum of Science and 
History as the Marine Archeology Repository for state marine 
collections.) this office has detemined the following:
         
         Biennial Net Impact to General Revenue Funds by HB2848-As Introduced
         
No fiscal implication to the State is anticipated.
         
The bill would designate the Corpus Christi Museum of Science 
and History as the Marine Archeology Repository for state collections, 
specifies that the museum may be asked to curate collections 
recovered under state permit, and provides that artifacts curated 
by state designated repositories may be loaned to qualified 
institutions.  The bill would take effect immediately.  

The 
Historical Commission does not foresee fiscal impact associated 
with this bill due to its permissive language.  However, in 
the event that the commission and the Corpus Christi Museum 
do enter into agreements or contracts for the curation of collections, 
 the contract costs, which would be negotiated by mutual agreement, 
and would vary depending on the size of the collection, the 
type of artifacts, and the work required on the collection. 
A shipwreck collection of approximately 100 artifacts in need 
of cleaning, for example, was  curated for the Army Corps of 
Engineers at a cost of $80,000.  The cost to curate a smaller 
or larger collection, consisting of different types of artifacts 
requiring a different type of work would vary considerably. 
 
         
 
          
No fiscal implication to units of local government is anticipated.
          
   Source:            Agencies:   808   Historical Commission
                                         
                      LBB Staff:   JK ,TH ,JA