LEGISLATIVE BUDGET BOARD

Austin, Texas

FISCAL NOTE, 83RD LEGISLATIVE REGULAR SESSION

March 24, 2013

TO:	Honorable Tommy Williams, Chair, Senate Committee on Finance
FROM:	Ursula Parks, Director, Legislative Budget Board
IN RE:	SB657 by Paxton (Relating to procedural requirements for adopting and filing a school district budget and voting requirements for setting a property tax rate by the governing body of a taxing unit, including a school district.), As Introduced

No significant fiscal implication to the State is anticipated.

The bill would require a school district budget filed with the Texas Education Agency (TEA) to contain a cover page that included the district property tax rates for the preceding and current fiscal years, the total amount of bonds and other debt obligations owed at the time of the budget adoption, a list of district expenditures comparing preceding and current fiscal year expenditures, and the record vote of each member of the board of trustees, by name, voting on the budget adoption and, if the vote had been taken, the setting of property tax rates for the current fiscal year.

The bill would require the school district to post a copy of the adopted budget, including the required cover page, on the district’s website and maintain the information for three years.

The bill has no direct fiscal implications for the Foundation School Program (FSP) and no significant impact on the operations of the TEA. The TEA currently receives budget information electronically. The new required documents could be submitted as electronic documents to the TEA.

Local Government Impact

School districts would have administrative costs to prepare additional budget information for submission to the TEA and for posting on their Internet websites.

Source Agencies:

304 Comptroller of Public Accounts, 701 Central Education Agency

LBB Staff:

UP, KK, JSc, JBi