LEGISLATIVE BUDGET BOARD
                              Austin, Texas
                                     
                    FISCAL NOTE, 77th Regular Session
  
                             January 19, 2001
  
  
          TO:  Honorable Frank Madla, Chair, Senate Committee on
               Intergovernmental Relations
  
        FROM:  John Keel, Director, Legislative Budget Board
  
       IN RE:  SB61  by Moncrief (Relating to the annexation of a county
               road.), As Introduced
  
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*  No fiscal implication to the State is anticipated.                    *
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Local Government Impact
  
The bill would require a city annexing an area bounded by a county road
to annex the entire right-of-way associated with the section of road
being annexed.  Currently, municipalities with less than 1.6 million
population are not required to purchase the entire right-of-way when they
are annexing a section of road that is bounded by a county road.

The bill would affect every city in Texas except Houston.  Costs would
vary based on what the nature of the use of the annexed road would be,
cost for reconstruction for each city, and cost of expansion.

According to the City of Odessa (population of 96,195), the expense of
maintaining the annexed area would come into play and would impact their
city.  Another factor would be the expense of enlarging the road for
development depending on the nature of development.  The city attorney's
office stated they have never annexed part of a road and part of a
right-of-way.  If they annex an area, they annex the entire area.  Some
of the costs would include mowing, traffic signals, stop signs, and
resurfacing.  The cost of resurfacing a road for Odessa is $9,152 per
mile.

In Gainesville (population of 14,760), the community development
department said when they annex an area, they look at the center line of
the annexed road and annex half of the right-of-way but maintain all of
the right-of-way.  They usually have an agreement with the county
regarding the maintenance.  Gainesville would incur costs of mowing,
possible stop lights, and resurfacing of an annexed area, but the costs
cannot be determined since it would depend on the development of the
area.  Their cost for resurfacing is $5,280 per mile.

In Arlington (population of 306,497), the impact would be the police
services, fire department, resurfacing of the roads, and mowing.  If the
city ordinance for roads is at a higher standard than the county, then
they would need to bring the county road up to the city standards.  The
cost of resurfacing a road varies depending upon the type of surface that
is used and how wide the road is to be resurfaced.

The City of Brownsville (population of 137,883) said there would be a
definite impact because they would have to maintain the trash pick up,
fire and police protection, resurfacing and mowing.  Currently, if the
city does the resurfacing of a road, it costs $50 per linear foot or
$2,640 per mile.  It costs more if they have an outside contractor do the
work for them.  Brownsville officials said the costs cannot be
determined because it depends on the road that is annexed, what type of
development is to be done and what kinds of services have to be offered.

The bill would result in costs for local governments.  However , the
costs cannot be determined since the development along roads in each
city is different and costs for maintaining roads vary for every city.
  
  
Source Agencies:   304   Comptroller of Public Accounts
LBB Staff:         JK, DB