LEGISLATIVE BUDGET BOARD
Austin, Texas
FISCAL NOTE, 77th Regular Session
March 30, 2001
TO: Honorable Paul Sadler, Chair, House Committee on Public
Education
FROM: John Keel, Director, Legislative Budget Board
IN RE: HB580 by Pickett (Relating to annual audits of school
dropout records.), As Introduced
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* Estimated Two-year Net Impact to General Revenue Related Funds for *
* HB580, As Introduced: negative impact of $(234,412) through the *
* biennium ending August 31, 2003. *
* *
* 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 Impact:
****************************************************
* Fiscal Year Probable Net Positive/(Negative) *
* Impact to General Revenue Related *
* Funds *
* 2002 $(132,206) *
* 2003 (102,206) *
* 2004 (102,206) *
* 2005 (102,206) *
* 2006 (102,206) *
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All Funds, Five-Year Impact:
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*Fiscal Probable Savings/(Cost) from Change in Number of State *
* Year General Revenue Fund Employees from FY 2001 *
* 0001 *
* 2002 $(132,206) 2.0 *
* 2003 (102,206) 2.0 *
* 2004 (102,206) 2.0 *
* 2005 (102,206) 2.0 *
* 2006 (102,206) 2.0 *
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Fiscal Analysis
The bill requires the Texas Education Agency (TEA) to do two activities
that have fiscal implications: (1) Develop a training program for
auditing district dropout records and make the program available to
public accountants throughout the state; (2) Review each district's
annual audit report and notify the board of trustees of any objections
or violations of accounting procedures, state law or rules. It is
estimated that these activities would necessitate two additional
full-time TEA employees and $132,206 in administrative costs in fiscal
year 2002 and $102,206 each subsequent fiscal year.
Methodology
TEA estimates that its audit division would need two full-time employees
to implement this bill, at a total salary of $70,320 per year, plus
$19,886 per year in benefit costs. The responsibilities of this staff
include developing the standards for auditing dropout records and
conducting a one week training course for public accountants. For this
course there would be an estimated one-time cost of $30,000 in 2002.
TEA anticipates that the two full-time employees will need to conduct
audits on unusual campus dropout reports or districts with special
circumstances. TEA estimates that it would take the two employees and
two months at the cost of $150 per day per person for travel, for a total
of $12,000 annually.
Local Government Impact
Districts would be required to pay for the annual audit of the dropout
records. Each audit should average around $1,000 for the approximately
2,550 middle and high school campuses for a state-wide cost of
$2,550,000.
Source Agencies: 701 Texas Education Agency
LBB Staff: JK, CT, JM