LEGISLATIVE BUDGET BOARD

Austin, Texas

FISCAL NOTE, 81ST LEGISLATIVE REGULAR SESSION

May 19, 2009

TO:	Honorable Burt R. Solomons, Chair, House Committee on State Affairs
FROM:	John S. O'Brien, Director, Legislative Budget Board
IN RE:	SB1320 by Wentworth (Relating to notice by a governmental entity regarding certain geospatial data products.), Committee Report 2nd House, Substituted

No significant fiscal implication to the State is anticipated.

The bill would amend the Government Code to require a governmental entity to include an "informational purposes" notice on geospatial data, such as maps or mapping services, that is created or hosted by the governmental entity and was not produced using information from an on-the-ground survey conducted by or under the supervision of a registered professional land surveyor. A governmental entity would not be required to include the required notice on a geospatial data product that is prepared as evidence for a legal proceeding or that does not contain a legal description, property boundary monument, or the distance and direction of a property line.

Based on the agency responses, it is assumed that agencies with a significant amount of mapping data would have a short term impact to become compliant with the bill, but that the impact would not be significant to the State.

Local Government Impact

The fiscal impact to local governmental entities would vary depending on the number of maps or mapping data an entity produces that would need to be updated with the required notice.

Source Agencies:

305 General Land Office and Veterans' Land Board, 464 Board of Professional Land Surveying, 555 Texas AgriLife Extension Service, 576 Texas Forest Service, 802 Parks and Wildlife Department, 808 Historical Commission

LBB Staff:

JOB, KJG, PJK, DB, SD, TP