LEGISLATIVE BUDGET BOARD

Austin, Texas

FISCAL NOTE, 82ND LEGISLATIVE REGULAR SESSION

April 6, 2011

TO:	Honorable Steve Ogden, Chair, Senate Committee on Finance
FROM:	John S O'Brien, Director, Legislative Budget Board
IN RE:	SB1652 by Watson (Relating to the implementation of new technology and new processes for the purposes of budget transparency, fiscal responsibility, and open government.), As Introduced

Estimated Two-year Net Impact to General Revenue Related Funds for SB1652, As Introduced: a negative impact of ($180,000) through the biennium ending August 31, 2013.

General Revenue-Related Funds, Five-Year Impact:

Fiscal Year	Probable Net Positive/(Negative) Impact to General Revenue Related Funds
2012	($180,000)
2013	$0
2014	$0
2015	$0
2016	$0

All Funds, Five-Year Impact:

Fiscal Year	Probable (Cost) from General Revenue Fund 1
2012	($180,000)
2013
2014
2015
2016

Fiscal Analysis

The bill would amend several sections of the Government Code related to the development of state budgets and the publication of related documentation, including: requiring the Legislative Budget Board (LBB) to include certain information about authorized fees in the general appropriations bill; requiring the LBB to post budget development documentation on the agency website; requiring the Comptroller of Public Accounts to publish data related to revenue from fees; amending procedures related to the Cash Management Committee; and requiring all state agencies and institutions of higher education to publish high-value data sets on agency and institution websites. The bill would take immediate effect upon receiving two-thirds votes of all members in each house; otherwise the bill would take effect September 1, 2011.

Section 2, Budget Database, would have a fiscal impact on the LBB and require an appropriation in order to be implemented.  It is assumed that all other provisions of the bill could be implemented within existing resources.

Methodology

This analysis estimates that 2,400 hours would be necessary to develop, test and publish the budget database.  At $75 per hour, the cost would total $180,000.  This analysis assumes that all work necessary to implement the database would occur in FY 2012 and that subsequent maintenance and support of the database would be provided by existing staff. 

Approximately one third of the hours and costs associated with this provision are related to the requirement that information contained in the database be raw data in open standard format.  Providing data in an alternate format would cost less and potentially provide greater accessibility to the general public. 

Technology

The bill's provisions requiring a budget database would require significant information technology development and testing by the LBB.  The bill's provisions related to high-value data sets, which would affect all state agencies and institutions of higher education, would require minimal changes to existing information technologies and therefore would not have a significant fiscal impact.

Local Government Impact

No fiscal implication to units of local government is anticipated. 

Source Agencies:

302 Office of the Attorney General, 304 Comptroller of Public Accounts, 313 Department of Information Resources, 513 Funeral Service Commission, 720 The University of Texas System Administration

LBB Staff:

JOB, KK, PP, KY