BILL ANALYSIS |
C.S.H.B. 343 |
By: Márquez |
Public Education |
Committee Report (Substituted) |
BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE
State officers and employees file their personal financial statements to uphold certain rules and regulations adopted by the Texas Ethics Commission. Interested parties note that currently, school board members have the option to file personal financial statements, but they point out that school board members handle important matters and should not be influenced by financial perks. The parties maintain that the only interest school board members should have is ensuring that children get the education they deserve. Among other provisions, C.S.H.B. 343 seeks to require a school board member in a certain school district to file a financial statement similar to that required of state officers with the district board of trustees and the commissioners court of the county in which the district's central administrative office is located.
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RULEMAKING AUTHORITY
It is the committee's opinion that this bill does not expressly grant any additional rulemaking authority to a state officer, department, agency, or institution.
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ANALYSIS
C.S.H.B. 343 amends the Education Code to require each member of the board of trustees of an independent school district located in a county with a population of 800,000 or more that is located on the international border to file a financial statement with the board of trustees and the commissioners court of the county in which the school district's central administrative office is located. The bill makes Government Code provisions governing the contents, timeliness of filing, and public inspection of a personal financial statement applicable to a statement filed by a member of the board of trustees as if the trustee were a state officer and the commissioners court of the county were the Texas Ethics Commission.
C.S.H.B. 343 makes it a Class B misdemeanor offense for a trustee to fail to file the required financial statement. The bill requires the commissioners court of the county to determine from any available evidence whether a statement is late and, on making such a determination, to immediately mail a notice of the determination to the individual responsible for filing the statement. The bill makes the individual responsible for filing a statement liable to the county for a civil penalty of $500 if the statement is determined to be late. The bill requires the commissioners court, if a statement is more than 30 days late, to issue a warning of liability by registered mail to the individual responsible for the filing. The bill makes the individual liable for a civil penalty in an amount determined by the commissioners court, but not to exceed $10,000, if the $500 penalty is not paid before the 10th day after the date on which the warning is received.
C.S.H.B. 343 specifies that a trustee is not required to include financial activity occurring before January 1, 2014, in a required financial statement. The bill's provisions apply beginning January 1, 2015.
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EFFECTIVE DATE
January 1, 2014.
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COMPARISON OF ORIGINAL AND SUBSTITUTE
While C.S.H.B. 343 may differ from the original in minor or nonsubstantive ways, the following comparison is organized and highlighted in a manner that indicates the substantial differences between the introduced and committee substitute versions of the bill.
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