LEGISLATIVE BUDGET BOARD

Austin, Texas

FISCAL NOTE, 81ST LEGISLATIVE REGULAR SESSION

April 27, 2009

TO:	Honorable Todd Hunter, Chair, House Committee on Judiciary & Civil Jurisprudence
FROM:	John S. O'Brien, Director, Legislative Budget Board
IN RE:	HB1133 by Dutton (Relating to the establishment of paternity.), As Introduced

Estimated Two-year Net Impact to General Revenue Related Funds for HB1133, As Introduced: an impact of $0 through the biennium ending August 31, 2011.

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
2010	$0
2011	$0
2012	$0
2013	$0
2014	$0

All Funds, Five-Year Impact:

Fiscal Year	Probable Savings/(Cost) from Vital Statistics Account 19	Change in Number of State Employees from FY 2009
2010	($2,149,077)	33.8
2011	($2,615,612)	45.0
2012	($2,620,832)	45.0
2013	($2,626,232)	45.0
2014	($2,631,812)	45.0

Fiscal Analysis

The bill would require an unmarried father who wants to claim paternity of a child to have genetic testing to prove that he is the father before he can sign an acknowledgement of paternity.

Methodology

The Department of State Health Services (DSHS) estimates that 100,000 men per year would not be able to declare paternity at the hospital using the current automated system, because the paternity test must be completed after the baby is born. Instead, these men would have the Acknowledgement of Paternity (AOP) manually entered into the vital statistics database at DSHS after the test is completed.  It is estimated that 33.8 FTEs at a cost of $2,121,077 in fiscal year 2010 and 45 FTEs at a cost of $2,597,612 in fiscal year 2011 and beyond would be needed to manually enter the AOPs into the database; these costs include salary, benefits, lease costs, enterprise support costs, and other operating expenses.

 

DSHS estimates that $28,000 is needed in fiscal year 2010 for information technology (IT) updates and maintenance and $18,000 in fiscal year 2011 and beyond for additional IT support.

 

In the cost included above, it is estimated that $295,927 in fiscal year 2010, and $304,588 in fiscal year 2011 and beyond is for enterprise support for the FTEs. 

 

There could be an impact to revenue (not included above) due to potential loss of fees if the men choose to forgo the genetic test and/or do not register paternity.

Technology

DSHS estimates the cost to update the Texas Electronic Registrar (TER)-Birth Certificates to show if genetic testing was performed and for maintenance for the TER to be $18,000.

 

DSHS estimates to change the AOP FAX server to update the automated AOP form for genetic testing and update the server processes is $10,000 in fiscal year 2010.

Local Government Impact

No fiscal implication to units of local government is anticipated.

Source Agencies:

212 Office of Court Administration, Texas Judicial Council, 537 State Health Services, Department of

LBB Staff:

JOB, MN, PP, BM, MB