LEGISLATIVE BUDGET BOARD Austin, Texas FISCAL NOTE, 77th Regular Session February 27, 2001 TO: Honorable Senfronia Thompson, Chair, House Committee on Judicial Affairs FROM: John Keel, Director, Legislative Budget Board IN RE: HB1107 by Hartnett (Relating to the use of money in the county law library fund.), As Introduced ************************************************************************** * No fiscal implication to the State is anticipated. * ************************************************************************** Local Government Impact The bill would allow a county with 30 or more district courts to use the county law library fund to purchase or lease library materials or acquire library equipment, computers, software, and subscriptions to electronic research networks for use by the judges. The Act would take effect September 1, 2001. Currently, only Dallas and Harris counties have 30 or more district courts, Dallas has 32 and Harris has 59. Use of law library funds to make purchases of items identified in the bill would provide a savings to any other county fund currently used to make such purchases, depending on the revenue level of the law library fund and the purchases or leases made. Harris County, for example, currently makes law library purchases using the county's general fund and estimates spending around $800,000 annually for that purpose. Costs for subscriptions to electronic research networks vary from $15 to $150 per month per individual subscriber. The cost of legal books start at around $100 per book. A subscription for West Law on CD-Rom is $50,000 per year. Source Agencies: LBB Staff: JK, TB, DB