LEGISLATIVE BUDGET BOARD
                              Austin, Texas
                                     
                    FISCAL NOTE, 76th Regular Session
  
                              April 8, 1999
  
  
          TO:  Honorable Frank Madla, Chair, Senate Committee on
               Intergovernmental Relations
  
        FROM:  John Keel, Director, Legislative Budget Board
  
       IN RE:  SB 601  by Moncrief (Relating to the creation of a
               municipal court technology fund.), Committee Report 1st
               House, Substituted
  
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*  No fiscal implication to the State is anticipated.                    *
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Local Government Impact
  
The bill would allow a municipality to assess a technology fee of $6 as a
cost of court to defendants convicted of misdemeanor offenses in a
municipal court or a municipal court of record. The proceeds of the fee
would be deposited into a fund known as the Municipal Court Technology
Fund and could be used only to finance the purchase of technological
enhancements for a municipal court of record.

Four municipalities provided estimates of the number of misdemeanor
convictions to which the technology fee could apply. Following is an
estimate of potential annual revenues that could be generated by the
technology fee in each of the four selected municipalities:

Austin                    $1,139,352
Denton                  $   174,000
Farmers Branch     $   144,000
Lubbock                $   300,000

Other municipalities could incur similar revenues, depending on the
number of misdemeanor convictions per year.
  
  
Source Agencies:   
LBB Staff:         JK, TL