LEGISLATIVE BUDGET BOARD
Austin, Texas
FISCAL NOTE, 76th Regular Session
April 23, 1999
TO: Honorable Debra Danburg, Chair, House Committee on
Elections
FROM: John Keel, Director, Legislative Budget Board
IN RE: HB2611 by Greenberg (Relating to electronic reporting of
certain political contributions and political
expenditures), Committee Report 1st House, Substituted
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* Estimated Two-year Net Impact to General Revenue Related Funds for *
* HB2611, Committee Report 1st House, Substituted: negative impact *
* of $(500,834) through the biennium ending August 31, 2001. *
* *
* The bill would make no appropriation but could provide the legal *
* basis for an appropriation of funds to implement the provisions of *
* the bill. *
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General Revenue-Related Funds, Five-Year Impact:
****************************************************
* Fiscal Year Probable Net Positive/(Negative) *
* Impact to General Revenue Related *
* Funds *
* 2000 $(384,167) *
* 2001 (116,667) *
* 2002 (116,667) *
* 2003 (116,667) *
* 2004 (116,667) *
****************************************************
All Funds, Five-Year Impact:
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*Fiscal Probable Savings/(Cost) from Change in Number of State *
* Year General Revenue Fund Employees from FY 1999 *
* 0001 *
* 2000 $(384,167) 3.0 *
* 2001 (116,667) 3.0 *
* 2002 (116,667) 3.0 *
* 2003 (116,667) 3.0 *
* 2004 (116,667) 3.0 *
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Technology Impact
The Ethics Commission estimates that the bill would require programming
to accommodate the increase in electronic filings, to allow for filing
through a modem or the Internet, and for certifying the formats of
filers' software which would be used for filing reports electronically.
The agency also projects a need to upgrade its data base, to create a
fully searchable retrieval data base and to purchase four additional
terminals to provide public access to electronic reports.
Fiscal Analysis
The bill would require campaign finance reports filed with the Ethics
Commission to be filed by computer diskette, modem or other means of
electronic transfer. Under the bill, candidates, officeholders and
political committees would be exempt from the requirement if they did not
use a computer to solicit or track political contributions and if
contributions made to, and expenditures made by, them do not exceed
$20,000 in a calendar year. The bill would exempt filings related to
certain county and multicounty offices from the electronic filing
requirement. Candidates, officeholders and political committees exempted
from the requirement would continue to file campaign finance reports on
paper.
The bill would require state agencies, cities, counties, independent
school districts and public libraries to permit candidates, officeholders
and political committees to file reports on computer terminals available
for public use.
The bill would require the Ethics Commission to publish electronically
filed campaign finance reports on the Internet within two business days
after they are filed. The bill would require the agency to remove
addresses from the reports prior to publishing on the Internet.
The Ethics Commission anticipates that the bill would increase the
agency's workload. The agency reports that each report filed by
diskette would have to be uploaded into its data base. The agency also
anticipates that the bill would result in the need to answer questions
from persons who are attempting to file electronically.
Methodology
In order to begin accepting reports by modem by the bill's effective
date, the Ethics Commission estimates it would be necessary to contract
with vendors at a cost of $250,000 for initial programming. The agency
estimates an additional $50,000 in vendor costs would be required for
programming to create screens for entering report information on the
Internet from publicly accessible computer terminals. The agency also
estimates that it would need two (2) additional programmers on staff for
the programming and maintenance of the filing system and the information
retrieval system.
The agency also indicates that the bill would result in the need to hire
one (1) additional person in the agency's disclosure filings division to
serve as the contact to answer questions and assist those who are filing
campaign finance reports electronically.
Local Government Impact
No significant fiscal implication to units of local government is
anticipated.
Source Agencies: 356 Ethics Commission
LBB Staff: JK, PE, SG