Honorable John T. Smithee, Chair, House Committee on Judiciary & Civil Jurisprudence
FROM:
Ursula Parks, Director, Legislative Budget Board
IN RE:
HB1799 by Thompson, Senfronia (Relating to the adoption of the Uniform Electronic Legal Material Act.), As Introduced
Estimated Two-year Net Impact to General Revenue Related Funds for HB1799, As Introduced: a negative impact of ($611,720) through the biennium ending August 31, 2017.
Fiscal Year
Probable Net Positive/(Negative) Impact to General Revenue Related Funds
2016
($100,000)
2017
($511,720)
2018
($413,759)
2019
($511,720)
2020
($413,759)
Fiscal Year
Probable Savings/(Cost) from General Revenue Fund 1
Change in Number of State Employees from FY 2015
2016
($100,000)
0.0
2017
($511,720)
8.0
2018
($413,759)
6.0
2019
($511,720)
8.0
2020
($413,759)
6.0
Fiscal Analysis
The bill would amend the Government Code to establish the Legislative Council (TLC) as the official electronic publisher of the Texas Constitution, session laws, statutes, and state agency rules beginning January 1, 2017. The bill would also require the TLC to employ a process that would verify the trustworthiness of all official electronic documents published by the TLC and make the material reasonably available for use by the public on a permanent basis.
The bill would take effect September 1, 2015.
Methodology
Currently, the Secretary of State electronically publishes the session laws and agency rules of Texas. This analysis assumes the bill would not transfer any responsibilities from the Secretary of State and that the TLC would incur costs necessary to publish information as required by the bill.
For the purposes of this analysis, the TLC used the Secretary of States' 2014 Legislative Appropriations Request as its basis for determining costs to publish the information required by the bill. TLC estimates four FTEs would be required at a total salary cost of $185,000 each fiscal year to administer the additional functions and one additional information technology employee, at an estimated salary cost of $60,000 to support publishing responsibilities provided in the bill. TLC also estimates that it would need to retain six temporary editors employed during each legislative session for four additional months to meet this need for an additional $74,000 in salary costs during session years and that one full-time experienced editor would need to be hired for $60,000 each year to be responsible for updating and correcting the official database throughout the year. TLC also anticipates that costs necessary to provide a verification system to ensure the authenticity of official legal material in an electronic record would include an initial software purchase of $100,000 in fiscal year 2016 with annual software maintenance costs of $10,000 for each subsequent year.
The bill would take effect September 1, 2015 with primary responsibilities for the Texas Legislative Council beginning in fiscal year 2017 and any statute and constitutional updates that would be necessary as a result of legislation enacted from the 85th Legislature, therefore these costs are assumed to begin in fiscal year 2017.
Technology
TLC anticipates an initial software purchase of $100,000 in fiscal year 2016 with annual software maintenance costs of $10,000 for each subsequent year.
Local Government Impact
No significant fiscal implication to units of local government is anticipated.
Source Agencies:
103 Legislative Council, 212 Office of Court Administration, Texas Judicial Council