LEGISLATIVE BUDGET BOARD

Austin, Texas

FISCAL NOTE, 80TH LEGISLATIVE REGULAR SESSION

May 11, 2007

TO:	Honorable Robert Duncan, Chair, Senate Committee on State Affairs
FROM:	John S. O'Brien, Director, Legislative Budget Board
IN RE:	HB842 by Raymond (Relating to public access to personal financial statements filed by judges and justices.), As Engrossed

Estimated Two-year Net Impact to General Revenue Related Funds for HB842, As Engrossed: a positive impact of $25,696 through the biennium ending August 31, 2009.

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
2008	$25,696
2009	$0
2010	$0
2011	$0
2012	$0

All Funds, Five-Year Impact:

Fiscal Year	Probable (Cost) from GENERAL REVENUE FUND 1
2008	$25,696
2009	$0
2010	$0
2011	$0
2012	$0

Fiscal Analysis

The bill would require home address information be removed from a personal financial statement filed with the Texas Ethics Commission by a judge or a justice before making the statement available to the public.

Methodology

According to the Texas Ethics Commission, there are 8,453 judicial filers currently in the agency filing database. Therefore, it is assumed that significant staff time would be required to remove address information from the financial statement of those filers. As a result, it is assumed that an additional 2 temporary employees at a cost of $25,696 in General Revenue would be required to assist the agency for 4 months with processing, reviewing, and altering original personal financial statement submissions to conform to the provisions of the bill.

Local Government Impact

No fiscal implication to units of local government is anticipated.

Source Agencies:

356 Texas Ethics Commission

LBB Staff:

JOB, KJG, JM