| TO: | Honorable Tom Craddick, Speaker of the House, House of Representatives |
| FROM: | John S. O'Brien, Deputy Director, Legislative Budget Board |
| IN RE: | HB1285 by Swinford (Relating to the exception from required disclosure under the public information law of certain audit working papers.), As Passed 2nd House |
The bill would amend the Government Code to add a joint board operating under Section 22.074, Transportation Code (joint boards regarding airports, air navigation facilities, and airport hazards) to those entities that would be excepted from the requirement of making audit papers available to the public as per Section 552.021, Government Code.
The Government Code would also be amended to include in the definition of "audit," for public information purposes, an audit authorized by the charter or an ordinance of a municipality or an order of the commissioners court of a county.
The bill would take effect immediately if it receives the required two-thirds vote in both houses; otherwise, it would take effect September 1, 2005 and would apply only to an audit working paper created on or after the effective date.
Under current statute, the public information act applies to working papers from audits authorized or required by state statute or U.S. statute.
Implementation of the proposed addition to statute could reduce the number of documents a local entity may have to copy for requestors.
No significant fiscal impact to units of local government is anticipated.
| Source Agencies: |
| LBB Staff: | JOB, SD, SR, DLBa
|