LEGISLATIVE BUDGET BOARD
Austin, Texas
 
FISCAL NOTE, 80TH LEGISLATIVE REGULAR SESSION
 
March 1, 2007

TO:
Honorable Jeff Wentworth, Chair, Senate Committee on Jurisprudence
 
FROM:
John S. O'Brien, Director, Legislative Budget Board
 
IN RE:
SB325 by Williams (Relating to the creation of an appellate judicial system for the Ninth Court of Appeals District.), Committee Report 1st House, Substituted

No significant fiscal implication to the State is anticipated.

The bill would amend Government Code, Chapter 22, to create an appellate judicial system for the Ninth Court of Appeals. The bill would require counties of the Ninth Court of Appeals district to collect and forward filing fees to a fund for the assistance of the court. According to the Office of Court Administration, 50,410 civil cases were filed in the appellate district in fiscal year 2006 in the county court, county courts at law, probate courts, and district courts in the district. Assuming 50,410 civil case filings per fiscal year at $5 per filing, the counties within the district would contribute an estimated $252,050 per fiscal year to the appellate justice system. 

 

The bill would require the commissioner courts to vest management of the system in the chief justice of the Ninth Court of Appeals. To the extent that the Ninth Court of Appeals uses local collections to defray expenses previously paid with state appropriations, the fiscal implication to the state is not anticipated to be significant.  The bill would take effect September 1, 2007.


Local Government Impact

No significant fiscal implication to units of local government is anticipated.

The 10 counties in the Ninth Court of Appeals District would incur slight costs to establish a separate appellate justice system fund, but these costs are expected to be minimal. To the extent local government would incur a savings from having a new source of revenue to pay the approximately $52,000 per year of the supplemental salaries and benefits to justices of the court, the fiscal implication to units of local government is not anticipated to be significant.



Source Agencies:
212 Office of Court Administration, Texas Judicial Council, 304 Comptroller of Public Accounts
LBB Staff:
JOB, MN, ZS, TB, KJG