LEGISLATIVE BUDGET BOARD
Austin, Texas
 
FISCAL NOTE, 78TH LEGISLATIVE REGULAR SESSION
 
February 13, 2003

TO:
Honorable Anna Mowery, Chair, House Committee on Land & Resource Management
 
FROM:
John Keel, Director, Legislative Budget Board
 
IN RE:
HB334 by Villarreal (Relating to the adoption and enforcement of a rehabilitation code and a building code by municipalities and counties.), As Introduced

No fiscal implication to the State is anticipated.

The bill would amend the Local Government Code to require municipalities to adopt and enforce a rehabilitation code for alterations, remodeling, enlargement, or repairs of existing structures to which the International Residential Code does not apply and adopt and enforce a building code applicable to new construction of structures to which the International Residential Code does not apply. The bill would also require counties in which any part of a municipality with a population of 250,000 is located to adopt and enforce a rehabilitation code and building code. The codes must be as codes existed on May 1, 2003 as adopted by a developer of a national model code or by the American National Standards Institute. The bill would take effect September 1, 2003, and require that the codes be adopted on or before January 1, 2004.

Local Government Impact

Municipalities and counties indicated that the primary costs that would result from implementation of the bill would be for code enforcement, including hiring staff to conduct inspections. Estimates of the annual cost obtained by contacting a sampling of counties and municipalities include $460,000 in Harris County (population over 3.4 million), $115,000 in El Paso County (population 679,622), $76,000 in small counties, significant impact in some municipalities, and no significant impact in municipalities such as Huntsville (population 35,078).

The costs associated with conducting inspections and enforcing codes would vary by county and municipality depending on the number of buildings constructed, altered, remodeled, enlarged, or repaired.



Source Agencies:
304 Comptroller Of Public Accounts
LBB Staff:
JK, CL, JB, DLBa