LEGISLATIVE BUDGET BOARD
                              Austin, Texas
                                     
                    FISCAL NOTE, 77th Regular Session
  
                              March 13, 2001
  
  
          TO:  Honorable Teel Bivins, Chair, Senate Committee on
               Education
  
        FROM:  John Keel, Director, Legislative Budget Board
  
       IN RE:  SB460  by Duncan (Relating to the inclusion of certain
               contractual obligations in the debt of a school district
               for property tax purposes.), As Introduced
  
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*  No significant fiscal implication to the State is anticipated.        *
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The bill amends the tax code to set out a procedure by which a school
district can include contractual obligations in the definition of debt
for purposes of computing the district's rollback tax rate. To the extent
that the bill allows an increase in a district's maintenance tax rate, a
district could establish a level of higher tax effort that could allow
it to earn more state aid in future years. (The bill does not authorize
districts to tax above the current general ceiling for maintenance and
operations purposes, $1.50.

Because the bill does not affect the maintenance and operations taxes
collected in the 2000-01 school year or the formula system for the next
two fiscal years, there would be no fiscal implication for the state
until the 2004-05 biennium. At that time,  fiscal implications would
only occur, if school districts chose to increase maintenance taxes by
re-categorizing maintenance tax debt as debt for truth-in-taxation
purposes.
  
Local Government Impact
  
No significant fiscal implication to units of local government is
anticipated.
  
  
Source Agencies:   304   Comptroller of Public Accounts, 701   Texas
                   Education Agency
LBB Staff:         JK, CT, PF