LEGISLATIVE BUDGET BOARD
Austin, Texas
FISCAL NOTE, 77th Regular Session
May 1, 2001
TO: Honorable Teel Bivins, Chair, Senate Committee on
Education
FROM: John Keel, Director, Legislative Budget Board
IN RE: HB2007 by Naishtat (Relating to indoor air quality in
newly constructed or renovated public school buildings.),
As Engrossed
**************************************************************************
* Estimated Two-year Net Impact to General Revenue Related Funds for *
* HB2007, As Engrossed: negative impact of $(178,244) through the *
* biennium ending August 31, 2003. *
**************************************************************************
General Revenue-Related Funds, Five-Year Impact:
****************************************************
* Fiscal Year Probable Net Positive/(Negative) *
* Impact to General Revenue Related *
* Funds *
* 2002 $(92,743) *
* 2003 (85,501) *
* 2004 (85,501) *
* 2005 (85,501) *
* 2006 (85,501) *
****************************************************
All Funds, Five-Year Impact:
***************************************************************************
*Fiscal Probable Savings/(Cost) from Change in Number of State *
* Year General Revenue Fund Employees from FY 2001 *
* 0001 *
* 2002 $(92,743) 1.5 *
* 2003 (85,501) 2.0 *
* 2004 (85,501) 2.0 *
* 2005 (85,501) 2.0 *
* 2006 (85,501) 2.0 *
***************************************************************************
Fiscal Analysis
The bill amends Section 385, Health and Safety Code, to require the Texas
Board of Health (TDH) to establish mandatory guidelines for indoor air
quality in public schools. The mandatory guidelines would apply to
schools that are newly constructed or substantially renovated after the
date the guidelines are adopted and take effect.
The bill also amends Chapter 46, Education Code, by adding Section
46.0081. This bill would prohibit a school district from using state
funds received under Chapter 46 to pay the costs of renovating an
instructional facility unless the district obtains a copy of a survey
conducted promptly after the renovation is complete that analyzes the
facility's overall indoor environmental quality. The bill would not
apply to a renovation project for which the working drawings were
completed before the effective date of the legislation.
The legislation takes effect September 1, 2001.
Methodology
A three month start up period is assumed.
TDH estimated two additional full-time employees would be needed to cover
duties due to implementation of the bill. TDH estimated other operating
expenses, such as office furnishings, telephones, and office supplies,
would total $12,266 in fiscal year 2002. Operating expenses would total
$1,798 in each year thereafter. TDH estimated one time costs in fiscal
2002 for printing and mailing 5,000 copies of the voluntary guidelines
for indoor air quality in public schools would total $10,000. It is
estimated equipment costs, including the purchase of two personal
computers and a laser printer for the additional TDH employees, would
total $6,500 in fiscal year 2002 only.
Local Government Impact
According to the Texas Education Agency (TEA), a relatively average-sized
Central Texas school district that has recently set up a district-wide
indoor air quality (IAQ) monitoring program indicated that they incurred
the following costs: a professional employee who spends approximately 25
percent of their time on the IAQ program; approximately $15,000 per year
($150 per test x approximately 100 tests per year) to conduct tests when
air quality problems are suspected (this cost represents the costs to
test the samples, the district has purchased their own equipment to
collect the samples); approximately $750 for training of the employee;
and varying costs to repair problems as they are discovered or occur.
Since not much data is available regarding the costs of IAQ programs in
school districts, for purposes of this fiscal note we will assume that
the costs incurred by this district would represent an average cost for
all school districts in Texas.
Under this bill, only new or substantially renovated facilities would be
subject to the mandatory guidelines; therefore, for purposes of this
fiscal note, we will assume that only ten percent of an average
district's facilities will initially be subject to the requirements of
this bill. A school district professional chosen to oversee a
district-wide program would expect to spend approximately 25 percent of
their time exclusively on the IAQ program; however, for a school district
that has an IAQ program that is limited to only new or renovated
facilities, we will assume that the professional employee would spend
approximately ten percent of their time exclusively on the IAQ program.
Since the average school district professional annual salary is $40,000,
the annual salary cost for the professional employee will therefore be
$4,000 per district on average. Training costs would remain at $750 per
year regardless of the scope of the program. The cost for testing would
be $1,500 per year ($150 per test x 10 tests per year). For a district
that has equipment to collect their own test samples, the total annual
cost would be $6,250 ($4,000 salary + $750 training + $1,500 testing =
$6,250) if only new or substantially renovated district facilities are
regularly monitored. With a total of 1,041 districts, the statewide
total would be $6,506,250 per year for IAQ monitoring programs.
It is unknown to what extent school districts are already addressing the
IAQ issue through monitoring, although the number of districts is
believed to be small. For those few districts that have already begun
IAQ monitoring, this bill will have minimal added costs.
For the portion of this bill that amends Chapter 46 of the Education
Code: In the $150 million Instructional Facilities Allotment
appropriation ($100 million of which was reserved for new awards) from
the 76th Legislature, approximately 722 facility projects involving
construction or renovations were provided assistance. If the 77th
Legislature provides new funds at the same funding level, we can assume
that there would be about the same amount of facility renovation
projects receiving assistance. Information from private companies that
perform such surveys indicates that the surveys required under this bill
would cost approximately $2,700 per facility. Based on the assumptions
in this paragraph, the total local cost for the surveys required by this
bill is estimated to be $1,949,400. (722 facilities x $2,700 =
$1,949,400)
Source Agencies: 701 Texas Education Agency, 501 Texas Department
of Health
LBB Staff: JK, CT, PF