LEGISLATIVE BUDGET BOARD Austin, Texas FISCAL NOTE, 76th Regular Session April 8, 1999 TO: Honorable Tom Ramsay, Chair, House Committee on County Affairs FROM: John Keel, Director, Legislative Budget Board IN RE: HB 2981 by Hamric (Relating to emergency services districts.), Committee Report 1st House, Substituted ************************************************************************** * No fiscal implication to the State is anticipated. * ************************************************************************** Local Government Impact The bill's provision reducing the maximum property tax rate that a fire prevention district converting to an emergency services district from 6 cents to 3 cents on each $100 of taxable property value would reduce the potential property tax revenues such a district could expect to collect by one half. The bill would provide greater financial flexibility to emergency services districts, since it would allow them to borrow money. The bill could provide savings to districts being created in more than one county, since it would allow elections for the initial commissioners on one of the four uniform statewide election dates, rather than a non-uniform election date in November. Since under current law, elections for the initial commissioners would generally require a separate election, a district could save the cost of a separate election if the initial fire commissioner election could be combined with another election. The savings associated with eliminating the need for a separate election would depend on the population within the fire protection district. Based on a recent survey of local governments, it is estimated that the median cost of a local election is approximately $.52 per resident. Source Agencies: LBB Staff: JK, TL