Honorable Wayne Smith, Chair, House Committee on Licensing & Administrative Procedures
FROM:
Ursula Parks, Director, Legislative Budget Board
IN RE:
HB2882 by Miller, Doug (Relating to the payment by certain alcoholic beverage permit or license holders of certain fees and taxes.), As Introduced
Estimated Two-year Net Impact to General Revenue Related Funds for HB2882, As Introduced: a negative impact of ($837,953) through the biennium ending August 31, 2017.
Fiscal Year
Probable Net Positive/(Negative) Impact to General Revenue Related Funds
2016
($468,196)
2017
($369,757)
2018
($273,331)
2019
($273,331)
2020
($273,331)
Fiscal Year
Probable (Cost) from General Revenue Fund 1
2016
($468,196)
2017
($369,757)
2018
($273,331)
2019
($273,331)
2020
($273,331)
Fiscal Year
Change in Number of State Employees from FY 2015
2016
7.0
2017
7.0
2018
5.0
2019
5.0
2020
5.0
Fiscal Analysis
The bill would require the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission (TABC), rather than a city, town, or county, to collect certain local fees related to alcoholic beverage permits and licenses that are levied by a city, town, or county. TABC would be required to cancel or deny a permit or license if the permittee or licensee did not pay the fee levied by the units of local government. Under the provisions of the bill, TABC would be required to adopt rules to establish a method under which it would collect local fees from permit and license holders and remit the fee to the local political subdivisions that levied the fee. The bill would take effect on September 1, 2015.
Methodology
TABC estimates that it will need 3 additional Program Specialist I FTEs to process, disburse, and reconcile payments to local political subdivisions. The agency assumed that 254 counties and 1,340 municipalities would be impacted by the provisions of the bill. Using the same assumption, the agency estimates it will need 2 additional Accountant I or Accountant II FTEs to process payments. In fiscal years 2016 and 2017, the agency estimates it will need 2 additional Accountant I FTEs to set up local political subdivisions on the statewide accounting system in order to process payments. The additional FTE salaries total $1,027,320 and benefits total $332,647 for the five-year period.
Technology
TABC reports that at a minimum, a new application subsystem would be needed to track disbursement details and that new reports would be needed to aid in reconciliation between TABC applications and funds held by Comptroller of Public Accounts. The extent of automation of payments and disbursements is not yet known. The agency estimates that significant software modifications or upgrades may be necessary to collect and remit payments from up to 254 counties and more than 1,300 municipalities. TABC anticipates technology costs of $102,837 for the five-year period.
Local Government Impact
The bill would reduce administrative duties for county tax assessors. According to the Texas Association of Counties, there would be a positive fiscal impact to local governments; however, the fiscal impact is not anticipated to be significant.
Source Agencies:
304 Comptroller of Public Accounts, 458 Alcoholic Beverage Commission