LEGISLATIVE BUDGET BOARD
                              Austin, Texas
                                     
                    FISCAL NOTE, 76th Regular Session
  
                            February 25, 1999
  
  
          TO:  Honorable Florence Shapiro, Chair, Senate Committee on
               State Affairs
  
        FROM:  John Keel, Director, Legislative Budget Board
  
       IN RE:  SB35  by Shapiro (Relating to certain processes and
               procedures promoting the consolidation of elections.), As
               Introduced
  
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*  No fiscal implication to the State is anticipated.                    *
*                                                                        *
*  The bill would make no appropriation but could provide the legal      *
*  basis for an appropriation of funds to implement the provisions of    *
*  the bill.                                                             *
**************************************************************************
  
Local Government Impact
  
The bill requires joint elections by political subdivisions located in
the same territory, if elections by those political subdivisions are to
be held on the same day.  It also requires all political subdivisions to
use county precinct boundaries and county polling locations, and it
requires certain elections to be held on the four uniform election dates.


Political subdivisions, including municipalities, school districts,
community college districts, drainage districts, utility districts,
hospital districts and other districts which do not use the same precinct
boundaries as counties for elections could incur increased costs.  In
some cases, since certain political subdivisions use fewer polling places
than the county in which they are located, additional polling places
would have to be added.  The cost would depend on the number of
additional polling places needed.

Joint elections would require the cost of an election to be shared among
political subdivisions.  This could either increase or decrease the cost
of an election to a particular subdivision, depending on whether the
portion of the election's cost that a subdivision would be required to
pay would be greater or less than the cost under current procedures.

Requiring certain local elections, including bond elections, to be held
on the four uniform election dates could result in some savings to
political subdivisions, since it could reduce the total number of
elections.

Most counties would not expect significant fiscal implications from the
bill, but, in some cases, joint elections could require a significantly
greater number of ballots.  Denton County estimates that this could add
$25,000 to the cost of each election.
  
  
Source Agencies:   
LBB Staff:         JK, SD, SG, TL