| TO: | Honorable Joe Deshotel, Chair, House Committee on Land & Resource Management |
| FROM: | Ursula Parks, Director, Legislative Budget Board |
| IN RE: | HB724 by Guillen (Relating to the creation of a commission to study unclaimed land grant mineral proceeds.), Committee Report 1st House, Substituted |
The bill would create the Unclaimed Mineral Proceeds Commission is created to study and provide recommendations to the legislature regarding the distribution of mineral proceeds that are: (1) derived from an original land grant; (2) owned by a descendant of an original grantee; (3) unclaimed and presumed abandoned under certain statutory provisions; and (4) delivered to the Comptroller according to additional statutory prescriptions. The commission would be required to determine the amount of unclaimed original land grant mineral proceeds delivered to the comptroller that remain unclaimed on December 1, 2014 and determine procedures under which the state may be required to determine the owners of the proceeds, notify the owners of the proceeds; and distribute the proceeds to the owners.
The commission consists of 17 members to be appointed not later than December 31, 2013. The commission would be required to provide a final report on unclaimed original land grant mineral proceeds to the Governor, Lieutenant Governor, and Speaker of the House of Representatives by January 1, 2015. The commission would be abolished on June 1, 2015.
Although certain state agencies, including the Comptroller's Office and the General Land Office, could incur some administrative expenses associated with research and assisting the commission with meetings and preparing the bill's required report, such costs are not expected to be significant.
| Source Agencies: | 304 Comptroller of Public Accounts, 301 Office of the Governor, 305 General Land Office and Veterans' Land Board
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| LBB Staff: | UP, KKR, SZ, ZS, TL, KJo, LCO
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