LEGISLATIVE BUDGET BOARD
                              Austin, Texas
                                     
                    FISCAL NOTE, 77th Regular Session
  
                            February 26, 2001
  
  
          TO:  Honorable Teel Bivins, Chair, Senate Committee on
               Education
  
        FROM:  John Keel, Director, Legislative Budget Board
  
       IN RE:  SB216  by Bernsen (Relating to grants from the
               telecommunications infrastructure fund for telemedicine
               services.), As Introduced
  
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*  No fiscal implication to the State is anticipated.                    *
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Broadening the definition of health facilities eligible for
transportation infrastructure fund (TIF) funding to include for-profit
entities would not represent any additional cost to the state.  Rather,
this bill would involve a redistribution of available TIF funds in the
"qualifying entities" account, which currently funds grants to
not-for-profit health facilities, institutions of higher education,
libraries and collaborative consortia of eligible entities.  To the
extent that all grant funds in this account are awarded by the TIF
Board, adding another set of eligible entities may reduce the number
and/or amount of grants made to the current eligible entities.
  
Local Government Impact
  
No fiscal implication to units of local government is anticipated.
  
  
Source Agencies:   367   Telecommunications Infrastructure Fund Board,
                   501   Texas Department of Health
LBB Staff:         JK, CT, JM