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 ************************************************************************** * No fiscal implication to the State is anticipated. * ************************************************************************** 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