LEGISLATIVE BUDGET BOARD
                              Austin, Texas
                                     
                    FISCAL NOTE, 77th Regular Session
  
                              March 26, 2001
  
  
          TO:  Honorable Tom Ramsay, Chair, House Committee on County
               Affairs
  
        FROM:  John Keel, Director, Legislative Budget Board
  
       IN RE:  HB1950  by Hamric (Relating to the administration,
               powers, duties, maximum tax rate in populous counties and
               operations of emergency services districts.), As
               Introduced
  
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*  No fiscal implication to the State is anticipated.                    *
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Local Government Impact
  
The bill would authorize an emergency services district located wholly
within a county that has not established an office of county fire marshal
or a multi-county district located partly within a county that has not
established an office of county fire marshal to establish the office of
district fire marshal. The emergency services district would provide
office facilities, equipment, transportation, assistants, and
professional services for that office. The provisions of the bill would
also establish exceptions for paying charges for emergency services
provided in response to a hazardous materials service call.

One section of the bill would apply only to a county with a population of
3 million or more and would change the ad valorem tax rate from six
cents on each $100 of taxable value of property to ten cents in that
county only.

If an eligible emergency services district were to choose to establish
the office of district fire marshal, the annual operational costs could
range from around $300,000 to up to more than $1.5 million. These costs
represent annual budgets from existing fire marshal's offices in League
City (population of 43,633; serving an area that covers 54 square miles),
the City of Webster (population 5,570), and Harris County (population
over 3.2 million; serving an area of 1,100 square miles).

Currently, only Harris County has a population of 3 million or more.
There are four emergency services districts within Harris County that
would be covered by the provisions of the bill.  Assuming all four
increased the property tax rate to the maximum 10 cents per $100
valuation, the maximum amount of additional revenue collected would be
over $5.3 million.   Harris County Emergency Services District No. 9
(County Fair area) would see an increase of about $3.6 million.
District No. 7 (Spring area) would realize a revenue gain of
approximately $924,000.  District No. 28 (Ponderosa area) would see an
increase of about $680,000.  District No. 4 (Huffman area) would gain
about $100,000.
  
  
Source Agencies:   454   Texas Department of Insurance, 501   Texas
                   Department of Health, 304   Comptroller of Public
                   Accounts
LBB Staff:         JK, DB, RM