LEGISLATIVE BUDGET BOARD
                              Austin, Texas
                                     
                    FISCAL NOTE, 76th Regular Session
  
                              April 8, 1999
  
  
          TO:  Honorable Senfronia Thompson, Chair, House Committee on
               Judicial Affairs
  
        FROM:  John Keel, Director, Legislative Budget Board
  
       IN RE:  HB928  by Junell (Relating to the annual salary
               supplement paid by the state to certain county judges.),
               As Introduced
  
**************************************************************************
*  The bill would make no appropriation but could provide the legal      *
*  basis for an appropriation of funds to implement the provisions of    *
*  the bill.                                                             *
**************************************************************************
  
All Funds, Five-Year Impact:
  
***************************************************************************
*Fiscal    Probable Savings/(Cost) from    Probable Revenue Gain/(Loss)   *
* Year            Judicial Fund                 from Judicial Fund        *
*                      0573                            0573               *
*  2000                      $(1,020,000)                      $1,018,000 *
*  2001                       (1,023,000)                       1,023,000 *
*  2002                       (1,024,000)                       1,024,000 *
*  2003                       (1,025,000)                       1,025,000 *
*  2004                       (1,026,000)                       1,026,000 *
***************************************************************************
  
Fiscal Analysis
  
The bill would amend the Government Code to provide up to a $10,000
salary supplement to certain county court judges provided that the County
Commissioners Court imposes additional filing fees and court costs.  The
collection of the additional fees and costs would require the adoption
of a resolution authorizing the new fees and costs by the County
Commissioners Court.

The bill would provide county courts a means to participate even after
missing the filing deadline.  Payment of the salary supplement to a
county court would not occur until the 60th day after the county court
became entitled to collect the fee.  Counties collecting the additional
fees and costs under this bill could not collect the fees and costs
described under Section 51.701 of the Government Code, which relates to
an additional $40 filling fee that is used for court-related purposes.

For each entitled county, the state would pay the salary supplement in
equal monthly installments from the Judicial Fund 0573.  This bill would
require the Comptroller to return any fees and costs, collected under
this bill and in excess of expenses, on a pro rata basis to the
counties.
  
  
Methodology
  
204 county judges receive the current salary supplement of $5,000.  It is
estimated that all judges receiving the $5,000 salary supplement would
attempt to collect the additional $5,000 by imposing the newly
established filing fee and court cost.  This would cost the state
$1,020,000 each fiscal year.

Revenue projected to come into the Judicial Fund was estimated using case
data for county courts from the Texas Judicial System Annual Report.

The bill provides that excess revenue above the portion needed to pay the
salary supplement would be returned to the counties on a pro rata basis.
Thus, once revenue collections are sufficient to support the county
judge salary supplement (assumed to occur during FY 2001), revenue gain
and cost to the Judicial Fund would be equal.

Information from the Comptroller of Public Accounts was used to determine
revenue gain to the Judicial Fund.  Information from the Office of Court
Administration was used to determine cost to the Judicial Fund.
  
  
Local Government Impact
  
No significant fiscal implication to units of local government is
anticipated.
  
  
Source Agencies:   
LBB Staff:         JK, PE, DG