LEGISLATIVE BUDGET BOARD
Austin, Texas
 
FISCAL NOTE, 79TH LEGISLATIVE REGULAR SESSION
 
March 16, 2005

TO:
Honorable Suzanna Gratia Hupp, Chair, House Committee on Human Services
 
FROM:
John S. O'Brien, Deputy Director, Legislative Budget Board
 
IN RE:
HB239 by Goolsby (Relating to birth records of adopted children.), As Introduced



Estimated Two-year Net Impact to General Revenue Related Funds for HB239, As Introduced: an impact of $0 through the biennium ending August 31, 2007.

The bill would make no appropriation but could provide the legal basis for an appropriation of funds to implement the provisions of the bill.



Fiscal Year Probable Net Positive/(Negative) Impact to General Revenue Related Funds
2006 $0
2007 $0
2008 $0
2009 $0
2010 $0




Fiscal Year Probable (Cost) from
VITAL STATISTICS ACCOUNT
19 		Probable Revenue Gain/(Loss) from
VITAL STATISTICS ACCOUNT
19 		Change in Number of State Employees from FY 2005
2006 ($162,611) $6,642 1.0
2007 ($48,227) $6,642 1.0
2008 ($48,227) $6,642 1.0
2009 ($48,227) $6,642 1.0
2010 ($48,227) $6,642 1.0

Fiscal Analysis

The bill would require the State Registrar of Vital Statistics to decrease the number of changes made on a supplementary birth certificate issued for adopted children.  The bill would also require the State Registrar to issue a certified copy of the report of adoption instead of a supplementary birth certificate under certain circumstances.  The bill would also require the State Registrar to provide an adopted person a noncertified copy of the person's original birth certificate under certain circumstances.

Methodology

The Department of State Health Services indicates that additional staff resources will be needed to research potential fraud related to this legislation, redact the certificates of adoption issued instead of supplementary birth certificates, and address additional volume of applications to the adoption registry assumed to result from this legislation.  In addition, $100,000 would be required to modify software and $20,000 to make changes to the web page for the voluntary adoption registry.

The Department of State Health Services assumes that some additional revenues would be generated in association with the provisions of the bill due to additional petitions to identify the court needed to unseal the adoption and requests to unseal the files based on a court order.  The revenue gain would be $6,642 per year.


Local Government Impact

No significant fiscal implication to units of local government is anticipated.  Local registrars will need to be trained relating to the new procedures to implement the provisions of the bill but it is assumed such training will be conducted by the Department of State Health Services during currently planned annual conferences and through existing newsletters.


Source Agencies:
537 Department of State Health Services
LBB Staff:
JOB, CL, KF