LEGISLATIVE BUDGET BOARD
Austin, Texas
FISCAL NOTE, 77th Regular Session
May 11, 2001
TO: Honorable Mike Moncrief, Chair, Senate Committee on
Health & Human Services
FROM: John Keel, Director, Legislative Budget Board
IN RE: HB1959 by Naishtat (Relating to eligibility for and
allotment under the food stamp program for certain
persons.), As Engrossed
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* Estimated Two-year Net Impact to General Revenue Related Funds for *
* HB1959, As Engrossed: negative impact of $(2,490,681) 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 $(1,428,394) *
* 2003 (1,062,287) *
* 2004 (1,086,889) *
* 2005 (1,079,655) *
* 2006 (1,079,655) *
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All Funds, Five-Year Impact:
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*Fiscal Probable Probable Change in Number of *
* Year Savings/(Cost) from Savings/(Cost) from State Employees from *
* General Revenue Fund Federal Funds - FY 2001 *
* 0001 Federal *
* 0555 *
* 2002 $(1,428,394) $(1,128,016) 43.0 *
* 2003 (1,062,287) (841,454) 49.0 *
* 2004 (1,086,889) (860,940) 51.0 *
* 2005 (1,079,655) (855,210) 51.0 *
* 2006 (1,079,655) (855,210) 51.0 *
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Given the limited availability of TANF federal funds, for the purposes of
this fiscal note, General Revenue is assumed as the Method of Financing.
Should additional TANF federal funds become available, $300,378 in FY
2002 and $220,834 in FY 2003 in General Revenue costs assumed above could
be financed with TANF federal funds.
Fiscal Analysis
The bill would require Department of Human Services (DHS), to the maximum
extent allowed by federal law, exclude the income of a person who is
ineligible because of 8 U.S.C. Section 1612, as amended, to participate
in the food stamp program in determining: (1) the eligibility for food
stamps of another person who is a member of the household in which the
ineligible person is a member; and (2) the food stamp allotment for the
eligible person. The Act would take effect September 1, 2001, and would
apply to a person receiving food stamps on or after that date,
regardless of the date on which eligibility for food stamps was
determined.
Methodology
The department applied a 60.2 percent application approval rate to
estimate the number of new applications that would be approved and a 91
percent month-to-month case retention was applied to the resulting
number to estimate the average monthly caseload increase. DHS determined
the number of current cases that had one or more documented aliens in
the household to be 26,478, or 5.6 percent of all Food Stamp cases. In
addition, an estimated 68,727 applications are processed per month. The
DHS estimate assumed 5.6 percent of the applicants would also have a
documented alien. The department estimate included additional time to
handle applications and ongoing cases which would require 43 new staff
in FY 2002, rising to 51 by FY 2006. DHS assumed a cost of $633,600
would be needed for programming to allow for additional record keeping
because federal Food Stamp regulations require that the amount of
benefit to the eligible household members has to be capped at the amount
they would receive if the ineligible member was eligible. DHS stated
that two budgets would have to be run to assure they were in compliance
with federal regulations.
Local Government Impact
No fiscal implication to units of local government is anticipated.
Source Agencies: 324 Texas Department of Human Services, 320 Texas
Workforce Commission
LBB Staff: JK, HD, KF, ML