Honorable Garnet Coleman, Chair, House Committee on County Affairs
FROM:
John McGeady, Assistant Director Sarah Keyton, Assistant Director Legislative Budget Board
IN RE:
HB2808 by Shaheen (Relating to the publication of required notice by a political subdivision by alternative media and on the Internet.), As Introduced
Estimated Two-year Net Impact to General Revenue Related Funds for HB2808, As Introduced: a negative impact of ($785,000) through the biennium ending August 31, 2021.
Fiscal Year
Probable Net Positive/(Negative) Impact to General Revenue Related Funds
2020
($625,000)
2021
($160,000)
2022
($160,000)
2023
($160,000)
2024
($160,000)
Fiscal Year
Probable Savings/(Cost) from General Revenue Fund 1
Change in Number of State Employees from FY 2019
2020
($625,000)
2.0
2021
($160,000)
2.0
2022
($160,000)
2.0
2023
($160,000)
2.0
2024
($160,000)
2.0
Fiscal Analysis
This bill would amend the Government Code regarding government documents, publications, and notices. The bill would require political subdivisions to provide notices previously required to be published by newspaper on both the political subdivision's and the Comptroller of Public Accounts (CPA) websites, with certain exceptions. The bill would allow political subdivisions to provide notice through certain forms of media that have greater circulation than the newspaper with the greatest circulation in the political subdivision, if the political subdivision submits notice to CPA describing the alternative media.
The bill would require CPA, by December 31 of each even numbered year until January 1, 2023, to prepare a report that identifies and compares the effectiveness of different forms of notice publication used by political subdivisions.
The bill would take effect September 1, 2019.
Methodology
According to CPA, the provisions of the bill related the alternative notice report would require the office to develop and implement a database. The estimated cost of this requirement by CPA is $625,000 in fiscal year 2020 with a continuing cost of $160,000 in fiscal year 2021 and beyond.
The administrative cost estimated by CPA reflects the funds necessary to create the initial database and to hire two program specialist IVs to manage the newly created notice by publication database. These positions would work with the office's Information Technology Division to create the intake system and waiver guidelines, manage the information submitted and displayed, collect and process the data and produce the required biennial report. The estimated cost of these positions would be $160,000 per year.
Technology
According to CPA, there would be a one-time technology cost of $465,000 in fiscal 2020 for an estimated 3,100 hours to build a new database to capture, store and retrieve the notification data. This would require considerable text capture capability and storage, and sorting and search functionality for public retrieval. The database would also need to identify and capture a wide assortment of publication media.
Local Government Impact
According to the Texas Education Agency, because the internet posting requirements of this bill involve minimal costs to school districts, and the alternative media publication options of the bill are likely to be less expensive than traditional newspaper publication, the fiscal impact of this bill on school districts should be minimal.
According to the Texas Association of Counties, the bill would not have a significant fiscal impact to counties.
According to the Texas Municipal League, the bill could have a positive fiscal impact on cities, particularly smaller cities that are located in a populous county but who are required to publish notice in expensive major daily newspapers.
Source Agencies:
304 Comptroller of Public Accounts, 701 Texas Education Agency