Honorable Chris Paddie, Chair, House Committee on State Affairs
FROM:
Jerry McGinty, Director, Legislative Budget Board
IN RE:
HB1810 by Capriglione (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 expand the definition of public information to include a data dictionary or other information describing the data held in a database. Implementing the provisions of the bill would 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.
Local Government Impact
El Paso County does not anticipate a significant fiscal impact since they will be able to charge a fee to offset costs.
Hidalgo County does not anticipate a fiscal impact in the short term. If the county continues to see an uptick in public information requests (PIR), the county may have to invest in PIR management software at a cost of approximately up to $25,000.
The fiscal impact to other units of local government is not anticipated to be significant.
Source Agencies:
300 Trusteed Programs - Gov, 302 Office of the Attorney General, 304 Comptroller of Public Accounts, 307 Secretary of State, 720 UT Sys Admin