HBA-KDB H.B. 1220 77(R)    BILL ANALYSIS


Office of House Bill AnalysisH.B. 1220
By: Hartnett
Judicial Affairs
3/20/2001
Introduced



BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE 

Under current law, a clerk of a statutory probate court is required to
collect a $40 filing fee paid by the litigants in each probate,
guardianship, mental health, or civil case filed in the court in counties
whose commissioners courts have authorized this fee.  For each county that
collects this fee, the state is required to annually compensate the county
in an amount equal to $40,000 for each statutory probate court judge in the
county.  At the end of the year, the state returns additional amounts to
the counties on a proportional basis.  Currently, that excess amount is
paid to a county's general fund with the limitation that the excess fund
can be used only for court-related purposes for the support of the
judiciary.  The intent of creating the $40 filing fee may have been to
provide additional funding, above and beyond that already earmarked by the
commissioners court, to support the operations of the statutory probate
courts exclusively.  There is some concern, however, that counties  may
have decreased general fund expenditures that were historically allocated
in the county budget for the support of the statutory probate courts and
are relying on the $40 filing fee to make up the shortfall.  In addition, a
county may rely upon the statute's language "for the support of the
judiciary" to justify the county's use of the filing fee generated by the
statutory probate court for the support of other courts in the county.
House Bill 1220 requires the $40 filing fee to be paid into an excess
contributions fund in a county treasury, rather than a county's general
fund, and provides that the money in the fund is to be used only for
court-related purposes for the support of the statutory probate courts in a
county.  

RULEMAKING AUTHORITY

It is the opinion of the Office of House Bill Analysis that this bill does
not expressly delegate any additional rulemaking authority to a state
officer, department, agency, or institution. 

ANALYSIS

House Bill 1220 amends the Government Code to create an excess
contributions fund in the county treasury of each county to collect the
additional fees in certain statutory probate courts.  The bill authorizes
the money in an excess contributions fund to be used only for court-related
purposes for the support of the statutory probate courts in the county.
The bill prohibits a county from reducing the amount of funds provided for
the support of the statutory probate courts in the county because of the
availability of funds from the county's excess contributions fund. 

H.B. 1220 requires the excess amount remitted to the counties after the
state has compensated the judicial fund  to be paid to the county treasury
for deposit in the excess contributions fund.  The bill deletes the
provision that requires the remitted amount to be paid to the county's
general fund to be used only for court related purposes for the support of
the judiciary. 

EFFECTIVE DATE

On passage, or if the Act does not receive the necessary vote, the Act
takes effect September 1, 2001.