LEGISLATIVE BUDGET BOARD

Austin, Texas

FISCAL NOTE, 86TH LEGISLATIVE REGULAR SESSION

April 30, 2019

TO:	Honorable Dade Phelan, Chair, House Committee on State Affairs
FROM:	John McGeady, Assistant Director     Sarah Keyton, Assistant Director Legislative Budget Board
IN RE:	HB4132 by Rodriguez (relating to maintenance and production of electronic public information under the public information law.), Committee Report 1st House, Substituted

No significant fiscal implication to the State is anticipated.

The bill would amend Chapter 552 of the Government Code to require a governmental body to provide an electronic copy of public information maintained in an electronic form or in a format acceptable to the requestor. A governmental body would not be able to refuse to provide an electronic copy if it will require commands or instructions that can be executed within the normal course of business. The governmental body would not be required to purchase additional software to comply. Based on this analysis, it is assumed that the provisions of the bill could be implemented using existing resources. The bill would take effect September 1, 2019.

Local Government Impact

According to the Texas Municipal League, the bill provides that a city must provide information in the format that is requested by a requestor under the Public Information Act. Costs cannot be determined because it is unknown how many times this would occur, but the fiscal impact to cities could be significant if compliance would require programmer time and equipment.

The Texas Association of Counties does not anticipate a fiscal impact to counties.

Source Agencies:

302 Office of the Attorney General, 313 Department of Information Resources, 356 Texas Ethics Commission, 403 Veterans Commission, 458 Alcoholic Beverage Commission, 514 Optometry Board, 580 Water Development Board, 696 Department of Criminal Justice, 758 Texas State University System, 809 Preservation Board

LBB Staff:

WP, CMa, JQ, BRi, AF, CSt, PM