LEGISLATIVE BUDGET BOARD
Austin, Texas
FISCAL NOTE, 76th Regular Session
April 19, 1999
TO: Honorable Florence Shapiro, Chair, Senate Committee on
State Affairs
FROM: John Keel, Director, Legislative Budget Board
IN RE: SB418 by Moncrief (relating to procedures for and access
to reports of political contributions and expenditures;
providing a civil penalty), Committee Report 1st House,
Substituted
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* Estimated Two-year Net Impact to General Revenue Related Funds for *
* SB418, Committee Report 1st House, Substituted: negative impact *
* of $(63,733) 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 Net Impact:
****************************************************
* Fiscal Year Probable Net Positive/(Negative) *
* Impact to General Revenue Related *
* Funds *
* 2000 $0 *
* 2001 (63,733) *
* 2002 (63,733) *
* 2003 (63,733) *
* 2004 (63,733) *
****************************************************
All Funds, Five-Year Impact:
***************************************************************************
*Fiscal Probable Savings/(Cost) from Change in Number of State *
* Year General Revenue Fund Employees from FY 1999 *
* 0001 *
* 2000 $0 0.0 *
* 2001 (63,733) 1.0 *
* 2002 (63,733) 1.0 *
* 2003 (63,733) 1.0 *
* 2004 (63,733) 1.0 *
***************************************************************************
Technology Impact
The Ethics Commission projects that the bill would require it 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 electronic transfer through the Internet, using
computer software provided by the commission. The bill would exempt a
candidate, officeholder or a political committee from the electronic
filing requirement if the Ethics Commission does not provide computer
software to the filer sooner than 30 days before the end of the reporting
period. The bill would also exempt candidates, officeholders, and
political committees from that requirement if their contributions and
expenditures do not exceed $15,000 in a calendar year. Candidates,
officeholders and committees who file affidavits stating that their
computer equipment is not used to keep records of contributions or
expenditures or does not have access to the Internet would also be exempt
from the requirement.
The bill would require the Ethics Commission to produce indexes of
campaign finance reports, to annually publish a report summarizing
information contained in those reports, and to make information from
those reports available by electronic means. Additionally, the bill
would require the Ethics Commission to make campaign finance reports
available for public inspection not later than the second business day
after receipt.
Methodology
The Ethics Commission anticipates that the requirement to maintain and
publish indexes of campaign finance reports and to make the reports
available by electronic means would require computer programming and a
system to update and distribute the indexes of reports. The agency
anticipates that the publication of the indexes of campaign finance
reports and the annual summary of the reports by electronic means would
require programming to make the information available on the Internet and
on terminals for public viewing at the agency. The agency also projects
that making the indexes and summaries accessible electronically would
require the creation of a system for querying the information filed
electronically. The agency reports that one additional employee for the
Computer Services Division would be necessary.
The bill would exempt candidates, officeholders and committees from the
electronic filing requirement, if the Ethics Commission does not provide
them software to file electronically through the Internet. The bill
would not require the agency to provide this software. Furthermore, the
bill would exempt candidates, officeholders and committees from the
electronic filing requirement, if they use computers that do not have
access to the Internet. In light of these exemptions, this fiscal note
assumes that there will not be a significant increase in electronic
filings. Therefore, this fiscal note assumes there is not a significant
fiscal impact resulting from the electronic filing provisions. The
agency reports that requiring electronic filing would necessitate
contracting with a vendor for programming at a cost of $250,000. This
fiscal note assumes those programming costs would not be necessary.
The effective date of the bill is July 1, 2000 which is two months before
the end of fiscal year 2000. This fiscal note assumes the bill would
not cause a significant fiscal impact during those two months.
Local Government Impact
No fiscal implication to units of local government is anticipated.
Source Agencies: 356 Ethics Commission
LBB Staff: JK, SD, PH, SG