LEGISLATIVE BUDGET BOARD Austin, Texas FISCAL NOTE, 77th Regular Session March 1, 2001 TO: Honorable Teel Bivins, Chair, Senate Committee on Education FROM: John Keel, Director, Legislative Budget Board IN RE: SB555 by Ellis, Rodney (Relating to a college savings plan for qualified higher education expenses.), Committee Report 1st House, Substituted ************************************************************************** * No fiscal implication to the State is anticipated. * ************************************************************************** The bill establishes a higher education savings plan, which would enable individuals to save money for qualified higher education expenses by creating savings trust accounts within the plan. The bill would require the Prepaid Higher Education Tuition Board to develop and implement a plan, to select the financial institution or institutions to serve as the plan manager, to adopt rules governing withdrawal of money from a savings trust account, and to develop policies and penalties for non-qualified withdrawals. The bill would rename the Texas Tomorrow Fund as the Texas Tomorrow Constitutional Trust Fund. The renamed fund would no longer be held outside of the State Treasury and would become a trust fund held with the Comptroller. The bill would create the Texas College Savings Plan Account within the Texas Tomorrow Constitutional Trust Fund, and the new account would be financed through administrative fees and service charges. No additional state appropriations would be required to implement the provisions of the bill. The bill would implement recommendation ED-12 in the Comptroller's report, e-Texas: Smaller, Smarter, Faster Government. Local Government Impact No fiscal implication to units of local government is anticipated. Source Agencies: 781 Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, 304 Comptroller of Public Accounts LBB Staff: JK, CT, KC