LEGISLATIVE BUDGET BOARD
                              Austin, Texas
                                     
                    FISCAL NOTE, 77th Regular Session
                                Revision 1
  
                              April 12, 2001
  
  
          TO:  Honorable Frank Madla, Chair, Senate Committee on
               Intergovernmental Relations
  
        FROM:  John Keel, Director, Legislative Budget Board
  
       IN RE:  SB382  by Gallegos (Relating to the powers and duties of
               the Texas Commission on Fire Protection.), As Introduced
  
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*  No significant fiscal implication to the State is anticipated.        *
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Local Government Impact
  
Local departments and associations indicated that the sections of the
bill requiring equipment to be in compliance with National Fire
Protection Association (NFPA) standards would not have a significant
fiscal impact.  Compliance with NFPA standards for personal alert safety
systems, incident management systems, and personnel accountability
systems would not have a significant impact.

The Texas State Association of Firefighters indicated that the provisions
of the bill that relate to developing operating procedures which meet
NFPA standards would have a fiscal impact to local fire departments only
if they were to choose to increase staffing to meet NFPA standards.

Emergency Services Districts (ESDs) from small counties indicated that
their current revenue would not provide for increased staffing, so they
would have to adjust their operating procedures without adding personnel.


Departments in medium sized and large cities or counties would experience
a significant increase in costs if they were to add staff to meet NFPA
standards. According to officials with one of the Travis County ESDs,
the provisions of the bill would result in an increased cost of $300,000
for their district, which is a third of their current total budget.
Officials with the City of Houston indicated that their department would
need to increase staff size by about 550 firefighters to meet NFPA
standards, which would cost in excess of $40 million annually.
  
  
Source Agencies:   411   Texas Commission on Fire Protection
LBB Staff:         JK, DB, JN, TB, DW