LEGISLATIVE BUDGET BOARD
Austin, Texas
FISCAL NOTE
75th Regular Session
April 28, 1997
TO: Honorable Toby Goodman, Chair IN RE: House Bill No. 3281, Committee Report 1st House, Substituted
Committee on Juvenile Justice and Family Issues By: Goodman
House
Austin, Texas
FROM: John Keel, Director
In response to your request for a Fiscal Note on HB3281 ( Relating
to local court processing for child support cases and to enforcement
of child support orders; providing penalties.) this office has
detemined the following:
Biennial Net Impact to General Revenue Funds by HB3281-Committee Report 1st House, Substituted
Implementing the provisions of the bill would result in a net
positive impact of $14,426,000 to General Revenue Related Funds
through the biennium ending August 31, 1999.
The bill would make no appropriation but could provide the legal
basis for an appropriation of funds to implement the provisions
of the bill.
Fiscal Analysis
The bill would amend the Government Code, the Family Code, and
the Transportation Code to implement initiatives to increase
child support enforcement collections in Texas.
The bill
would establish a pilot program to streamline court processing,
enhance child support collections through competition, enhance
the Attorney General's "Child Support Evaders" program, and
require the Department of Public Safety to include in each notice
sent to a driver's license holder, a notice that the driver's
license may be suspended if the driver is delinquent in the
payment of child support.
The bill would partially implement
the Texas Performance Review (TPR) recommendations GG12, GG13,
GG14, GG15, and GG16 in Disturbing the Peace: The Challenge
of Change in Texas Government.
Methodolgy
The Comptroller of Public Accounts estimates that the pilot
program to streamline court processing through a consolidated
family law processing system would not be contingent upon implementation
of a state case registry and would include federal financial
participation based on reinvestment of collections on state-paid
foster care by the Office of the Attorney General (OAG). The
new case processing system would permit Texas to collect child
support for an estimated seven percent of children in care,
which would ensure that the pilot project could be funded entirely
through child support collections. The Comptroller estimates
that there would be a one-time cost to the Child Support Retained
Collections Account in fiscal year 1998 and a net gain to this
account in subsequent years of $601,000 per fiscal year.
The
bill would allow child support enforcement functions to be competitively
bid to increase the number of cases under court order and to
increase total child support collections. By allowing the OAG
to pay child support enforcement vendors on a contingency basis,
payments could be made without reducing available funds for
existing operations. The Comptroller of Public Accounts estimates
that the use of private vendors could increase revenue to the
Child Support Retained Collections Account by $3,188,000 in
fiscal year 1998, $10,467,000 in fiscal year 1999 and $11,577,000
in subsequent fiscal years.
The Comptroller estimates that
the increase in the number of non-custodial parents located
would increase by ten percent, because the use of social security
numbers would aid in locating non-custodial parents who are
delinquent in child support payments. Approximately one-half
of the state's share of collections for recipients of Temporary
Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) benefits would be deposited
in the Child Support Retained Collections Account. The Comptroller
estimates that the gain to this account would be $135,000 in
fiscal year 1998 and $270,000 in subsequent fiscal years.
Additional
child support collections would reimburse the state for grants
made under the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF)
program and would be deposited into the Child Support Retained
Collections Account in the General Revenue Fund. The public
exposure of child support evaders would enhance the agency's
search efforts, resulting in increased child support collections.
The amount of rewards would be determined by the agency and
paid from the Child Support Retained Collections Account in
the General Revenue Fund. The Comptroller estimates that the
net gain to the Child Support Retained Collections Account would
be $44,000 per fiscal year.
The bill would require the Sunset
Commission to select an independent firm to conduct an analysis
of the child support enforcement process in the Office of the
Attorney General. The firm conducting the study would make
a recommendation to the Sunset Commission, which would be required
to report its findings to the 76th Legislature, Regular Session,
1999.
The Sunset Commission estimates that this analysis
would cost approximately $300,000 to $500,000 in general revenue
funds during the 1998-99 biennium. The bill would require that
this cost be paid by the Office of the Attorney General out
of its regular appropriations.
The Department of Public Safety's
estimates that its License Issuance Bureau would incur additional
postage and envelope costs of $242,506, as a result of sending
the advisory notice to those renewing their driver's licenses.
One additional Data Entry Operator would be required to offset
the added mailing requirements. In fiscal year 1996, there
were 3,277,116 driver licenses mailed from the Austin headquarters.
The probable fiscal implications of implementing the provisions
of the bill during each of the first five years following passage
is estimated as follows:
Five Year Impact:
Fiscal Year Probable Revenue Probable Revenue Probable Probable Change in Number
Gain/(Loss) from Gain/(Loss) from Savings/(Cost) Savings/(Cost) of State
General Revenue General Revenue from General from State Employees from
Fund Fund -- Child Revenue Fund -- Highway Fund FY 1997
Support Retained Child Support
Collections Retained
Account Collections
Account
0001 0001 0001 0006
1998 $300,000 $3,746,000 ($1,002,000) ($281,268) 1.0
1998 601,000 10,783,000 (2,000) (280,470) 1.0
2000 601,000 12,647,000 (2,000) (280,470) 1.0
2001 601,000 12,647,000 (2,000) (280,470) 1.0
2002 601,000 12,647,000 (2,000) (280,470) 1.0
Net Impact on General Revenue Related Funds:
The probable fiscal implication to General Revenue related funds
during each of the first five years is estimated as follows:
Fiscal Year Probable Net Postive/(Negative)
General Revenue Related Funds
Funds
1998 $3,044,000
1999 11,382,000
2000 13,246,000
2001 13,246,000
2002 13,246,000
Similar annual fiscal implications would continue as long as
the provisions of the bill are in effect.
No fiscal implication to units of local government is anticipated.
Source: Agencies: 116 Sunset Advisory Commission
405 Department of Public Safety
304 Comptroller of Public Accounts
304 Comptroller of Public Accounts
302 Office of the Attorney General
501 Department of Health
324 Department of Human Services
LBB Staff: JK ,CB ,JC