LEGISLATIVE BUDGET BOARD

Austin, Texas

FISCAL NOTE, 82ND LEGISLATIVE REGULAR SESSION

March 31, 2011

TO:	Honorable Dan Branch, Chair, House Committee on Higher Education
FROM:	John S O'Brien, Director, Legislative Budget Board
IN RE:	HB33 by Branch (relating to measures to increase the affordability of textbooks used for courses at public or private institutions of higher education.), Committee Report 1st House, Substituted

No significant fiscal implication to the State is anticipated.

The bill would amend Education Code to increase the amount of information on college textbooks available to university students, at both public and private institutions of higher education. Not later than 30 days before the start of classes, an institution of higher education would be required to provide, on the institution’s website and with any course schedules provided in hard copy, detailed information about each course's textbook requirements, including: retail price; author; publisher; copyright date; and International Standard Book Number. The bill also places requirements on publishers to provide similar information to faculty concerning textbook selections and restricts the bundling of materials for sale in a single package.

The bill would take effect on September 1, 2011 but would apply to institutions of higher education beginning with the 2012 fall semester.

Local Government Impact

No fiscal implication to units of local government is anticipated.

Source Agencies:

710 Texas A&M University System Administrative and General Offices, 720 The University of Texas System Administration, 758 Texas State University System, 768 Texas Tech University System Administration, 769 University of North Texas System Administration, 781 Higher Education Coordinating Board, 783 University of Houston System Administration

LBB Staff:

JOB, KK, JI, KY