LEGISLATIVE BUDGET BOARD
Austin, Texas
FISCAL NOTE, 77th Regular Session
March 26, 2001
TO: Honorable Debra Danburg, Chair, House Committee on
Elections
FROM: John Keel, Director, Legislative Budget Board
IN RE: HB1275 by Turner, Bob (Relating to the nonpartisan
election of certain state and county officers.), As
Introduced
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* Estimated Two-year Net Impact to General Revenue Related Funds for *
* HB1275, As Introduced: negative impact of $(2,050,023) 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 $(2,050,023) *
* 2003 0 *
* 2004 (1,467,570) *
* 2005 0 *
* 2006 (2,050,023) *
****************************************************
All Funds, Five-Year Impact:
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*Fiscal Probable Savings/(Cost) from Probable Revenue Gain/(Loss) *
* Year General Revenue Fund from General Revenue Fund *
* 0001 0001 *
* 2002 $(2,698,823) $648,800 *
* 2003 0 0 *
* 2004 (2,173,770) 706,200 *
* 2005 0 0 *
* 2006 (2,698,823) 648,800 *
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Technology Impact
None
Fiscal Analysis
The bill would require that district judges, criminal district judges,
family district judges, criminal district attorneys, district attorneys
and all county and precinct officials run as nonpartisan candidates in a
general election rather than be nominated by political party in a
primary election. The bill also provides a schedule of filing fees for
the offices that would be effected by enactment of the bill. The bill
would require that a candidate receive a majority of the total number of
votes received by all candidates for the office. If no candidate
receives the vote required, there would be a runoff election for that
office.
Methodology
According to the Secretary of State's Office, because filing fees
currently are used to defray the cost of the primary elections and these
fees will no longer be collected by the political parties, the State will
need to give additional money for the primary fund to make up the
difference. In 2002 it is estimated that the political parties will lose
$2,698,823 in filing fees. In 2004, it is estimated that the political
parties will lose $2,173,770 in filing fees. The Secretary of State
estimates that it would collect $648,800 in 2002 and $706,200 in 2004.
The Secretary of State only calculated filing fees that were collected by
county chairs and fees collected by state chair that were distributed to
county chairs in both 1998 and 2000. The only fees that were
considered were those for the offices that would be effected by the
bill. These candidates may file with fee or petition. The county judge
collects the fees for county and precinct offices and deposits the money
into the general revenue of the county. The Secretary of State collects
the fees for district offices and deposits that money into the general
revenue fund of the state.
Local Government Impact
The Secretary of State's Office estimates that county judges will collect
$2,050,023 in 2002 and $2,467,570 in 2004. There could be a negative
impact to counties due to a number of runoff elections that would be
required. The Comptroller's Office provided information from several
county election representatives. A Travis County election official
stated this bill could trigger an extra election that was estimated to
cost the county an additional $400,000. A McLennan County election
official said there would be added expense of having another election in
their county, which would cost an additional $60,000. A Denton County
election official stated that this bill could cause that county to spend
an extra $132,000 for a runoff election.
Source Agencies: 356 Texas Ethics Commission, 307 Secretary of
State, 304 Comptroller of Public Accounts
LBB Staff: JK, TB, SK