LEGISLATIVE BUDGET BOARD
Austin, Texas
FISCAL NOTE, 77th Regular Session
May 17, 2001
TO: Honorable Warren Chisum, Chair, House Committee on
Environmental Regulation
FROM: John Keel, Director, Legislative Budget Board
IN RE: SB1541 by Duncan (Relating to the permanent management
of low-level radioactive waste.), Committee Report 2nd
House, Substituted
**************************************************************************
* Estimated Two-year Net Impact to General Revenue Related Funds for *
* SB1541, Committee Report 2nd House, Substituted: positive impact *
* of $0 through the biennium ending August 31, 2003. *
* *
* The bill would make no appropriation but could provide the legal *
* basis for an appropriation of funds to implement the provisions of *
* the bill. *
**************************************************************************
General Revenue-Related Funds, Five-Year Impact:
****************************************************
* Fiscal Year Probable Net Positive/(Negative) *
* Impact to General Revenue Related *
* Funds *
* 2002 $0 *
* 2003 0 *
* 2004 0 *
* 2005 0 *
* 2006 0 *
****************************************************
All Funds, Five-Year Impact:
**************************************************************************
*Fiscal Probable Revenue Probable Change in Number of *
* Year Gain/(Loss) from Low Savings/(Cost) from State Employees from *
* Level Waste Account/ Low Level Waste FY 2001 *
* GR-Dedicated Account/ *
* 0088 GR-Dedicated *
* 0088 *
* 2002 $1,199,730 $(1,199,730) 13.0 *
* 2003 3,095,730 (3,095,730) 13.0 *
* 2004 3,095,730 (3,095,730) 13.0 *
* 2005 2,178,784 (2,178,784) 14.0 *
* 2006 2,178,784 (2,178,784) 14.0 *
**************************************************************************
Technology Impact
The bill would require personal computers and related software and
equipment for fourteen new positions.
Fiscal Analysis
The bill would grant the Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission
(TNRCC) power to permanently manage low-level radioactive waste. TNRCC
would oversee the issuance of a license for permanent management at a
permanent management facility. The bill requires TNRCC to propose all
necessary rules by June 1, 2002. The bill would allow the facility to
accept federal facility waste at a separate facility adjacent to the
permanent facility.
Statutory modifications with fiscal implications:
* repeals all provisions authorizing the collection of planning and
implementation fees;
* requires an applicant to submit a nonrefundable fee of $100,000 along
with an application fee for the permanent management license, in an
amount to be determined by TNRCC;
* requires that the site had not been revoked by a referendum of each
county's voters, certified by the commissioners court of each county
where the proposed facility would be located;
* requires all TNRCC expenses under the Act to be paid from General
Revenue-Dedicated Account No. 0088, Low Level Radioactive Waste,
including transfers of funds to the host county of a facility;
* provides for waste disposal fees and processing and packaging fees to
be deposited in the Low Level Radioactive Waste Account No. 0088;
* authorizes ten percent surcharge on the gross receipts from fees or
charges related to the disposal of federal facility waste for transfer to
the commissioners court in the host county;
* creates two decommissioning accounts in the State Treasury, but
outside the General Revenue Fund, one for the Permanent Management
Facility and another for decommissioning the federal facility;
* creates an Assured Isolation Facility Conversion Account, in the
event, the licensee operates an assured isolation facility, to finance
conversion of the facility to a permanent management facility;
* requires TNRCC to review balances in each account each biennium, and,
upon reaching a balance that would generate enough interest income to
decommission or convert the facility in the time period projected,
instruct the Comptroller to discontinue directing fee revenue into the
account(s); and
* requires the Comptroller to transfer to the General Revenue Fund any
balances in these accounts that exceed these amounts (i.e., balances
that generate sufficient interest income to decommission or convert a
facility) at the close of each fiscal year.
Methodology
For purposes of this analysis, the following assumptions are made:
* three license applications will be received, generating fee revenue of
$1.2 to $2.9 million, depending on when the facility opens and when
collection of disposal fees begin;
* $2.0 million in fiscal year 2003 for technical review contract
services, $1.5 million in fiscal year 2004 for technical review contract
services, and $1.0 million per fiscal year for technical review contract
services in fiscal years 2005 and 2006;
* costs and fee revenue to the Decommissioning Accounts or transfers of
excess balances in these accounts to the General Revenue Fund are not
estimated as these costs would depend upon the type of facility licensed
and the amount of waste disposed; and
* no construction or land acquisition costs are contemplated as these
activities are the responsibility of the permanent management facility
licensee.
It is assumed that administrative costs until a facility opens and
collection of waste disposal fees begins would be funded by existing
balances in Low Level Radioactive Waste Disposal Account No. 0088 and
the fees charged license applicants. The current balance in General
Revenue-Dedicated Account No. 088 is $5.6 million, and the Comptroller
estimates a revenue gain of $712,500 from interest earnings and grazing
lease revenue during the 2002-03 biennium. Applicant fees will be set
at a rate sufficient to fund that portion of TNRCC administrative costs
not covered by the available balance in Low Level Radioactive Waste
Disposal Account No. 0088, until the facility opens and waste disposal
fees begin being received and deposited to the Low Level Radioactive
Waste Disposal Account. Based on revenues available in the Low Level
Radioactive Waste Disposal Account and a facility not opening until six
months into fiscal year 2005, the license fees charged applicants would
need to total $2,869,000.
Local Government Impact
The host county where a facility is located would be eligible to receive
10% of disposal fee revenue for public projects. In addition, a 10%
surcharge on gross receipts from fees or charges for disposal of federal
facility waste would be transferred to the host county where a facility
is located. Finally, the host county would incur the cost of a voter
referendum approving the location of a disposal site in the county.
Source Agencies: 582 Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission,
304 Comptroller of Public Accounts
LBB Staff: JK, CL, ZS